Wedding Bells
by xEnchanted
Summary: A wedding on Christmas Eve, but what happens that whole month of December? - Sequel to Family Affair.
1. The Call

I'm sorry if the spanish is off, I used google translator for it. What's in italics are the english translation.

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><p><strong>December 5th, 1991<strong>

"Did you call your mom back?" Mimi asked Roger while eating out of a carton of ice cream, sitting on his lap on the couch in front of the TV.

"Yes, she keeps asking when the wedding is and I have to keep telling her it's Christmas Eve. You'd think it'd be easy to remember." He told her. It was already the fifth of December.

"Honey, give your mother a break. She's trying" Mimi inhaled another spoonful of ice cream.

"Yeah I know. You should invest in some napkins because your face is a mess." He said, wiping some ice cream off her face with his finger, then licking it.

"When I'm finished" She whined, laying down across his lap.

Roger grabbed the ice cream out of her hand and put it down on the table in front of them, before Mimi could complain he pulled her back up so she was sitting up on his lap, kissing her.

"If you clean up your face now, we can do something more fun." He whispered to her when he pulled away slightly.

"Not a chance" She whispered back, then grabbing the ice cream container and laying back down again. Roger sighed.

In ten minutes, Mimi finished the whole thing of ice cream. She got up and threw it away, then washing off her hands and face. When she was done she went back to the couch where they were sitting. She sat down on Roger's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him fiercely.

Roger was taken back by her action, kissing her back with less aggression. After a minute he slightly pulled away.

"So now you're in the mood?" He questioned. Mimi ignored him and attacked his mouth once again. Roger wrapped his arms around her and fell back onto the couch.

They heard the phone ring but didn't get up and get it, letting the answering machine pick up. They heard a woman's voice fill the loft.

"Hi Mimi, it's Jennifer, I'm doing the flowers for your wedding. I wanted to know if-" Mimi quickly pulled away from Roger and got up, running to the phone. Roger grunted.

"Babe, just call her back later" He tried calling after her, but she was already picking up the phone.

"Hi Jennifer, sorry about that. What were you saying?" Mimi said as she picked up the phone and signaled Roger to be quiet with her hand.

"Yes, that's fine. Only red ones though." Mimi scribbled words on a piece of paper "Yes. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, bye." She hung up the phone, putting the paper down on the counter and then finally returning to the couch.

"What was that about?" Roger asked as he pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her.

"Just stuff about the flowers" She replied, resting her head on his shoulder. Now that they had more money coming in from their jobs, they could have a bigger wedding that they, more specifically Mimi, wanted.

"This wedding stuff is taking up most of our time." Roger said, rubbing her back gently.

"I know, but when it's all over we'll have had a beautiful wedding, and will spend the rest of our lives together" She told him.

Before Roger could respond, the phone began to ring again. They sat and waited for the answering machine to go off so they could listen to who it was. The loft filled with a voice of a woman who was calling.

"Mimi es Rosa. Yo quería saber si estaría bien para José y se me ocurrió una semana antes de la boda y la estancia en un hotel cercano. Sería mejor para mi horario de trabajo y de precios de los billetes de avión, ni siquiera tiene que molestarse con nosotros hasta la boda. Probablemente vamos a volver a casa día de Año Nuevo. Probablemente voy a tomar los lugares Jose, ya que es su primer viaje lejos de casa de todos modos. Mamá ya me ha dicho que se trata de una víspera de Navidad. Quiero que me llamen. Te amo, adios." _Mimi it's Rosa. I wanted to know if it would be okay for José and I could come a week before the wedding, probably the 14th and stay at a hotel nearby. It would be better for my work schedule and for plane ticket prices, you don't even have to bother with us until the wedding. We'll probably go back home New Years day. I'll probably be taking José places since it's his first trip away from home anyways. Mom already told me that it's one Christmas Eve. Please call me back. Love you, bye._ The loft grew silent.

"Who was that?" Roger asked.

"My sister, Rosa. She said she's coming a week earlier and going back New Years Day with her son José because it works better with her schedule. I have to call her back tomorrow." She told him.

"When exactly is she coming? Where will they even fit?" He said while looking around at the mess of a loft they lived in.

"The fourteenth. They're going to stay at a hotel, relax" She assured him. He calmed down a bit then.

"What happened to her husband?" He asked.

"He left a year ago, not glancing back even the slightest. She always said she wanted to marry someone like Papi when we were little. She sure as hell got one" Mimi explained with an eye roll. She didn't exactly enjoy her older sister much. Roger could feel the tension coming from her.

"Baby, what have you got against your sister?" He asked in a low voice, holding her tighter.

"She was always best at everything. Best in school, best in sports, most popular, everything. I wasn't, and I always had to hear about it. 'Why can't you be more like your sister? She gets all the high honors in school and all you do is dance around the house.' 'Your sister is so smart, what happened?' 'How come Rosa was so well raised and you weren't?' She was always first in Mami's heart too and Mami made sure everyone knew. She was a trophy child. Everyone would adore her and never even think about me. I ran away when I was fourteen because I couldn't take it anymore and look at me now. I may have a killer disease but at least I have real friends, a job I love, and a man who really loves me, and those are things she'll never have." Roger listened to her the whole time, knowing not to interrupt. He let her have that moment to let everything she's had bottled up for years come out to him right there.

He was about to say something to her when she broke free from his grip.

"I'm going to bed now." She told him as she made her way to their room.

"Do you want me to come with you right now?" He asked. She shook her head and slipped into the room.

At about 1AM, Roger noticed how late it was. He closed the TV and got up, making his way to the bedroom. He gently closed the door behind him, hoping not to wake Mimi, shedding his clothes, leaving him in his boxer. He put on an undershirt and climbed into bed next to Mimi. He wrapped an arm around her and drifted off to sleep.

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><p>All I can say is finally. I know it took a while, but I was busy. Yes, this is the sequel to Family Affair. If you're waiting for the Davis, it'll take a while but they will come up don't worry. I really didn't know what to put as the genres and now I feel like they're awkward but whatever. Reviews are great.<p> 


	2. Sick

**December 7****th****, 1991**

Mimi was on her way home from work earlier than usually. It was Saturday and she only had two classes to teach in the morning, the first one was at nine and the second one was at eleven. It was only 10:30 when she was exiting subway. She was coming home early because she had a stomachache.

She was two or three blocks from the loft when she walked into a Duane Reade. She got herself a two liter bottle of 7UP, a package of plain crackers, and pepto bismol. She put them all down on the counter and the cashier ringed them up as she pulled the money for them out her wallet. Once she paid for them, she left the store and made her way down the street.

Mimi nearly jumped out of her skin as she waited to cross the street when she heard a voice speaking to her.

"What're you doing here so early? I thought you had classes in the morning." She turned around and saw Mark, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and his camera in another.

"I do. I went through the first one but I feel really sick so I picked up some stuff for myself just now on my way home." She explained to him, showing him the bag.

"You should've called, I could've gotten you stuff and Roger could have went and got you." Mark was always considerate like that. Making sure everyone is okay, helping everyone out when they need it, even if they don't ask. He worried for everyone. The light signaling them it was okay to cross came on and they continued to the loft together.

"No, it's okay. You know how he is when you wake him." She assured him. "Do you always bring your camera around when you go out?" She asked, eyeing the camera in his hand.

"Yeah, I always think that I'd miss on the chance of filming something for one of my movies, or something for Alexi to use." He explained to her. She nodded.

Mark returned to Buzzline in January, a month after he quit. He figured it would help all three of them money wise. Alexi of course wanted him there. She was always searching for someone to join the company, always wanting someone to cover her ridiculous topics. Carrying around his camera like this is how he always had different things to hand into Alexi. He handed in two or even three segments every week, 3,000 each. They barely ever had to worry about not having heat, or hot water, or electricity anymore with all their paychecks now. They almost didn't even have to live in the loft anymore, but of course they could never part it.

They reached their building, opening the door and walking up the steps. Mark pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. Roger didn't even look up from where he was sitting at the table, figuring it was just Mark. He nearly dropped the cup of coffee he was drinking when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him with a whisper in his ear. "What are you doing up so early?"

"What are you doing home so early?" He asked as he turned his head to face her, giving her a quick kiss.

"I didn't feel good so I cancelled my last class." She told him.

"You should've called, I would've came and gotten you. What's wrong?" He said in a concerned tone, feeling her forehead to see if she felt warm.

"Just a stomachache, probably just something I ate." She assured him. "I'm going to go change." She told as she let go of him. She took off her coat and hung it up, then walked into her and Roger's room. He hoped it was just something she ate and not a virus or flu, her body couldn't handle that.

Minutes later she came out wearing gray sweatpants and a tank top with a zip-up sweatshirt over it, carrying a blanket. She saw that Roger in the same position as she left him and that Mark had gone into his room as usual. She laid down on the couch and wrapped the blanket around herself. She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

Roger turned from his position at the table to see who was there. He didn't even notice Mimi come back. He got up and went to her side.

"I'm fine" She told him, hoping he would stop worrying. "Look I even got myself some stuff" She said, pointing the bag on the table in front of them. He grabbed the bag and looked inside of it. He pulled out the pepto bismol and set it on the table, got up, then went into the kitchen area and got a spoon, then went back to her. He kneeled down in front of her and grabbed the medicine in his hand. He opened it and poured the liquid into the spoon, holding it up to Mimi's mouth. She opened her mouth and swallowed it.

"You don't need to feed me medicine like a baby" She said to him as he put everything back on the table.

"Yes, I do actually." He replied.

"No, you don't, you just need to hold me until I feel better." She told him, getting off of the couch so he could sit down and she could lay on top of him. Roger laid down on the couch, sitting up slightly. Mimi laid down on top of him with her head pressed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. She began to fall asleep. She didn't want to hear anything about wedding plans today.

Three hours later, Mimi woke up. She looked at the time and saw it was 2:30. She was about to get up when she realized that Roger's arms were still around her. She looked up and saw that he was fast asleep so she stayed in her position.

At around 3:00 Roger slowly started waking up. He realized he still had Mimi in his arms. He looked down at her and kissed the top of her head. She turned her head, facing him.

"Good morning sleepy head" She said in a low voice.

"How long have you been up?" He asked in the same low tone.

"Just a half hour. Can you let go of me I'm starving"

"Feeling better?" He asked as he let go of her. She nodded and got up, making her way to the kitchen. She searched for something to eat in the mess of a cabinet. She found a bag of cheese doodles and took it back to the couch. Roger sat up in a position where he was facing the TV. Mimi sat down next to him. She opened the bag and started stuffing her face with cheese doodles. Roger watched in amazement.

"Slow down, you don't want to get sick again" He told her, she rolled her eyes and started eating slower. Finally after a few minutes, she rolled up the almost-empty bag and put it away.

For the rest of the night, they spent it in the loft, watching Christmas movies, munching on snacks while Mark stayed in his room by himself, working on something for Alexi that was apparently a big deal.

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><p>For some reason, this is like my favorite episode out of the ones I've written so far. So yay.<p> 


	3. Doctor's Visit

**December 13****th****, 1991**

It was now Friday. Mimi has been having the same feeling every day. Sick in the morning, and then eating a lot at night. Roger would tell her every night not to eat too much or she'll get sick again and she'd just roll her eyes at him. After days of this he had had enough.

Mimi rolled over, when she opened her eyes and saw Roger looking at her. She smiled and said in a tired voice. "Good morning baby" Giving him a quick kiss.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" He asked as he warmed his arms around her, pulling her closer.

"Fine" She replied, burying her face in his chest.

"You're such a liar" He said in a low tone in her ear.

"I don't want to go to the doctor." She whined.

"You promised you would if you still didn't feel good by Wednesday. It's Friday" He reminded her.

"Ugh, fine" she groaned. He was finally satisfied. He kissed the top of her head and let her go. She got up to go call the doctor's office.

A few minutes later Roger came out of the bedroom to find both Mark and Mimi sitting at the metal table, talking and drinking coffee. He walked over to them and wrapped his arms around Mimi, kissing her cheek.

"My appointment is at one" She informed him.

"Okay, I'll call Collins and ask if we could change the time him and I were supposed to meet." He told her. She shook her head.

"No, I'll be fine by myself."

"Are you sure?" He questioned, doubting her.

"Yeah, you go have fun with Collins and Mark." She assured him.

"I don't know if I'm in the mood to have to watch them sit and get drunk in the middle of the day" Mark said, taking a sip of his coffee. Mimi laughed.

"Hey, I haven't been that bad lately, it's Collins that's the problem" Roger said, defending himself.

"True" Mark agreed.

Mimi was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office. All the seats were lined up against the wall, while a rack of outdated magazines was in the corner and a small coffee table was in front of the seats. The walls were beige and the carpet was a navy blue color. She was sitting near the door, reading one of the old magazines.

"Mimi Marquez" A nurse holding a clipboard called from the doorway. Mimi put the magazine down on the coffee table and got up, following the nurse into a room.

A half hour later, Mimi walked out of the office, rushing down the street. She went to a payphone, putting in some change and dialed.

"Hello?" A female voice answered the phone.

"Hey Maureen, it's Mimi. I was wondering if I could come over to you and Joanne's right now." Mimi said into the phone.

"Yeah, of course. Joanne will be home in 10 minutes, she's getting off early."

"Okay thanks. I'll be there in a few minutes. Bye" Mimi hung up on her and then dialed another number. She heard "Speak" ring through her ears followed by a beep.

"Hey Roger, it's me. I'm going to Maureen and Joanne's so I'll be back later. I love you." She then hung up and continued walking down the street.

There was a knock at the door. Maureen sprung up and yelled that she was getting it, letting Joanne who was in the bedroom know. She opened the door and Mimi immediately walked in.

"What's wrong Meems?" Maureen asked as she closed the door. Mimi flopped down on the couch.

"I'm tired and hungry. I've only a cup of coffee" Mimi said, hanging her arm over her forehead. Joanne walked out of the bedroom.

"Hey Mimi. What's going on? Are you feeling better?" Joanne asked. Maureen sat down on the arm of the couch next to Mimi's feet.

"I just came back from the doctor's office." Mimi told her.

"What happened?" Joanne asked, sitting on the other arm of the couch.

"I don't want to talk about it" Mimi said flatly.

"What do you mean you don't want to talk about it? What's wrong?" Maureen exclaimed, Joanne gave her a look telling her to calm down.

Mimi sighed and mumbled.

"What?" Joanne asked.

"I'm pregnant. I don't have time for to be pregnant right now with my sister coming tomorrow and the wedding next week. It's too much. We both have AIDS and the baby has a high chance of having it too. And even if it doesn't we still do and we'll be gone too soon for it. I don't know what to do." She sighed, putting her arm down, facing where the TV is.

"Oh honey" Joanne said, running her hands through her hair.

"When are you going to tell Roger?" Maureen asked, rubbing her leg slightly.

"I don't know" Mimi said. The phone started ringing before anyone could say anything. Joanne got up to answer it.

"Hello?" She said into the phone. "Yeah, she's here. She's fine, don't worry. I'll tell her you called. Alright, bye" Joanne then hung up the phone and came back. She kneeled in front of Mimi.

"Sweetie, Roger called. He's worried about you." She told her. Mimi sighed and sat up.

"Can you guys come back with me?" Mimi asked them.

"Of course we can." Maureen told her. They all got up and left Maureen and Joanne's apartment.

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><p><em>This is going to be longer than Family Affair, like definitely. Please review and tell me what you think. Do you like it so far, do you not like it so far. What do you want to see more of, what do you not want to see more of. I like to hear what you have to say! <em>


	4. Fight

**December 13****th****, 1991 5PM**

Mimi slide open the door to the loft with Maureen and Joanne right behind her. Mark and Roger were both sitting on the couch, turning their heads when they heard the door open.

Mimi immediately threw her coat and purse to the side, making her way to the kitchen for something to eat. Joanne and Maureen walked in after her.

"Hey guys" Joanne said to Mark and Roger. "Hey" They replied back.

"Baby what are you doing?" Roger asked as Mimi was rummaging through the cabinets. She didn't respond.

"She didn't eat all day" Maureen told him as her and Joanne sat on the chairs on either sides of the couch. Roger got, going to the kitchen area. He wrapped Mimi up in his arms.

"Want me to make you something?" He asked her. She shook her head.

"No, I want something now" She said, breaking free of his grip. She found a new bag of chips and settled for it. She opened it and started eating right there as she walked back to the couch with Roger following her.

Roger sat down and Mimi sat on his lap, continuing to eat the chips.

"What happened at the doctors?" Roger asked. "Wait" Mark said getting up and running to his room.

"What?" Everyone asked. He came back out with his camera on in his hands.

"This could be important to the wedding" He told everyone. He had been documenting all important things to the wedding.

"What, I could have found I was close to death and that's the moment you want to keep forever?" Mimi said to him. He rolled his eyes.

"So what happened?" Roger asked again, ignoring Mark.

"Nothing" Mimi said simply, shoving more chips into her mouth.

"Nothing?" He asked. He and Mark both had confused looks on their faces. Maureen and Joanne looked away.

"Nothing" She said again.

"Mimi, tell me what happened."

"I already told you" She said, getting up, walking to the kitchen area again.

"Mimi-" Roger began, getting up and following her.

"Mimi you have to tell him." Maureen said looking at them. She couldn't hold control of her big mouth any longer.

"Maureen!" Joanne snapped at her.

"Pookie, I'm just helping." Maureen told her.

"Don't" Both Mimi and Joanne said. Mark was still filming the whole scene. At this point he was filming just to show everyone how ridiculous they can act sometimes.

"Mimi baby, please tell me what happened." Roger begged as he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly so she couldn't get away. Mimi started moving around, trying to escape his grip. It was no use.

"I'll tell you when I want to" She said to him coldly.

"Mimi we don't have time to play games right now, the wedding is next week." Roger told her, his voice was getting louder.

"Fine. I'm pregnant. Are you happy now? Will you let go of me now?" She shouted at him. The room fell silent. Mark just realized that he just recorded one of the most important moments in Roger and Mimi's lives, and he was glad he did.

"What?" Roger said quietly in shock. They were just staring at each other now.

"Yeah" She said just as quietly. Roger was in a state of shock. His grip wasn't tight at all anymore, so much that his arms were basically just hanging around her. Mark was still filming the whole event while Joanne and Maureen where watching it from afar.

"I just- I can't- We can't- I have to go" Roger said frantically as he let go of her, grabbing his jacket and brushing past Mark in a hurry, slamming the loft door as he left. Mark stopped filming then, Maureen was looking down and Joanne was looking the other way. Mimi however, was looking right at the door, the door that Roger just walked out of.

"Mimi just give him some-" Mark began. "No" Mimi said to him sternly, interrupting him.

"Mimi it's okay to be upset" Maureen told her as she and Joanne both turned to face her again.

"No. I'm not upset. I'm pissed off. He always has to push and push until he gets what he wants and then if it's too overwhelming he just leaves. He can't handle things he doesn't expect and instead of discussing it he just runs away and I just can't anymore with the child-like behavior." Mimi took a deep breath and then continued. "I think I'm just going to go sleep or something. I need to be alone." She told them all. They all gave a small nod in response.

Maureen and Joanne told her to feel better and gave her a hug as she was leaving to her room.

Mimi shut the door behind her gently; it was in such bad shape that they had to be very careful to not ever slam it. She then threw herself onto the bed, sliding under the covers. She was very restless, tossing and turning it. She kept thinking about what had just happened and how mad Roger's response made her. Another thing in mind was how her sister was arriving tomorrow and she most definitely didn't want to deal with that. Even though it was only 6:30, she knew she wasn't going to be leaving her room for the rest of the night.

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><p><em>Omg I'm sooo sorry I didn't update sooner. I got really busy. <em>


	5. Lunch

**December 14****th****, 1991 **

The next morning when she woke up, she looked over expecting Roger to be there, he wasn't. Then she remembered what had happened and sighed, pulling the covers off of her. She got up, walking over to the door and opening it. As she walked in she saw Mark sitting at the table, drinking coffee with a bowl of cereal in front of him as he was reading the newspaper. She a figure on the couch caught her attention, she looked over and saw a sleeping Roger spread out across the couch, she rolled her eyes and then sat down across from Mark.

"You're not going to eat?" Mark asked her as she sat down, she shook her head.

"No, I feel sick" She told him, he nodded. He noticed that she kept looking back slightly at for a second at Roger on the couch.

"It's only 10, you know he won't be up for at least another hour." Mark told her.

"Yeah I know" She reminded him, turning her full attention back to him. The phone started to ring. Mark sprung up, and ran to it, answering it. It seemed odd to Mimi since they always let it go to voicemail.

"Mimi, it's for you" He said, reaching the phone out to her. She got up and took it.

"Hello?"

"Mimi, it's Rosa. We just landed here and we're about to leave to the hotel. I was just wondering, maybe we could get together for lunch at like 12:30. You could bring Roger" Rosa said into the payphone.

"Alright, just call me before so we know where we're going." Mimi told her.

"Okay, see you then." Rosa ended the call, hanging up the phone. Mimi hung up the phone and sat back down at the table. It was almost odd to have a conversation on the phone with her sister in English.

"That was my sister. She wants to go to lunch but she wants me to bring Roger" She told Mark, looking back at Roger when she mentioned his name.

"Just don't tell him about it and tell her he had something to do if you don't want him to go" Mark told her. She sighed and looked back at him.

"I guess that'll work." Mimi said.

At 11 Mimi went to go take a shower. The minute her foot hit the shower floor, Roger woke up. He looked around for a second, confused as to why he wasn't in his and Mimi's room. Then he remembered what had happened and started pushing the blanket off of himself. He got up, rubbing his eyes and started making coffee. While the coffee machine was going, he poured himself a bowl of Captain Crunch. Once the coffee was done he poured it into a mug and took the coffee and cereal to the metal table and sat down.

Mimi turned off the shower. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body. She stepped out of the shower, and walked back into the bedroom and started getting dressed.

Mark walked out of his room, coat and scarf already on, accompanied by his bag and camera. Roger looked up from the table at him.

"Oh, you're up" Mark said, making his way to the door. "I have things to do, I'll be back later. Mimi's in the shower in your bathroom, or that's what she last told me. See you later"

"Already, bye" Roger said after him as Mark closed the door behind him.

Mimi finished applying her make-up and looked at herself in the mirror. In all honesty, she really did want to look good for her sister. She took one last look, and then opened the door of her and Roger's room and walked out.

Roger looked up when he heard footsteps. He saw Mimi, dressed up for something. Mimi took one look at him, then turned away, walking over to where her purse was sitting on the counter. She started to look through it to make sure she had everything.

"Mimi" Roger began.

"Hm?" Mimi replied, not looking up from what she was doing.

"Can we talk about yesterday" A bottle of AZT, scattered breath mints, extra make up, a brush and other unnecessary things were in her purse.

"Not right now, I have somewhere to go" She told him, still not looking up.

"Where?" He asked.

"Nowhere" She responded.

"You got all dressed up to go nowhere?" He continued. Mimi sighed irritated.

"I'm going to lunch with my sister and nephew." She told him, looking up and turning her head towards him.

"When did she invite you?"

"She invited me, well us, this morning, while you were sleeping. But there's no time for you to get ready now, so I'll just tell her you had something with your mom or some shit." Mimi began to put on her leopard print coat, pulling her purse on her arm. Roger knew what game she was playing and decided to let it go.

"I should be back at 1:30, 2 at latest. If I'm not I'll call the loft. Bye" She said to him as she rolled open the door.

"Okay, bye. Love you" He called after her. She slid the door shut.

Mimi opened the door to Life, stepping in and looking around. She noticed how the host rolled his eyes when he saw her. She ignored it and continued scanning the restaurant. She told Rosa to meet her there, she wasn't sure if she was already there, lost, or not coming at all. She spotted a woman with thick, long, black hair, hair nothing like Mimi, crazy and wild, tangled, out of control, brown hair. There was a boy with black hair and brown eyes sitting with her, playing with the sugar packets. Mimi made her way over to the table. The woman looked up when she arrived there. Mimi sat down and took off her coat, putting her purse down on the floor.

"Hello Mimi" The woman said, turning to her.

"Hey Rosa" Mimi responded. Rosa turned to the little boy.

"Jose, say hi to your aunt Mimi" Rosa told him. The little boy waved to her. Mimi smiled at him.

"Hi Jose" She said to him, he went back to playing with the sugar packets.

"Where's Roger?" Rosa asked.

"He had to do something with his mother" Mimi told her.

"Why did you even pick this place?" Rosa asked, looking around in disgust. Mimi rolled her eyes, her sister hadn't changed.

"Because I like it" She simply told her.

"Mimi, why are you doing this?" Rosa continued to question her sister.

"Do what?"

"Live this lifestyle! It's ridiculous. This area is scary and dangerous and you probably live in a disgusting apartment. You could do so much better with your life but instead this is how you're wasting it. You don't have time to spare, so why don't you just live a better life." Rosa would never understand the lifestyle her sister lives in.

"What do you know about the way I live? What is it any of your business? You never cared before so why should you now. I live it the way I want to. I surround myself with people I love. I have a job that I love. I have a to-be husband that I love more than anything and he loves me just the same, unlike you did. I like the way I live, to me there is nothing better than it. I don't need you coming here and thinking you can just take charge of me and criticize the way I live. I invited you to the wedding because I thought it'd be good, if you plan on ruining it then just leave." Mimi put on her coat, picked up her purse and got up from the table, making her way to the door.

"Mimi, wait!" Rosa called after her, Mimi shook her head.

"I can't" Mimi called back. Rosa watched her sister push open the door and leave, she turned to her son, seeing he was still playing with the sugar packets. She sighed.

Mimi stomped down the street in a hurry to get back home. When she got to their building, she pushed open the door and ran up the stairs. She slid open the door, even bothering to knock to alert whoever was there that she was coming in, walking in and throwing off her leopard print coat to the side and put her purse down. Roger looked up from where he was on the couch, he saw Mimi throwing her stuff off and frantically running around, muttering something under her breath.

"Mimi" Roger called her. She paused, standing completely still, not saying a word. Roger got up from the couch, walking over to where she was standing in the kitchen area. He put his hands on her shoulders.

"What happened?" He asked her.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said, getting out of his grip, making her way to their room.

Roger sighed, watching her leave, shutting the door behind her. He leaned against the counter, he knew better than to upset her more. He didn't know what else he could do.


	6. Good Morning

**December 15****th****, 1991 **

Roger slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light. He began to stretch; as he did he felt a lot of pain coming from his back. It was his second night sleeping on the old couch. He hadn't spoken to Mimi since he had asked her what happened with her sister, actually he hadn't even seen her since then. He looked around and saw no one else there, he was alone. He looked up at the clock and saw it was already 12:15. Everyone else had already gotten up. He got off the couch and threw the blanket on it. He made his way to the kitchen and started making his coffee and cereal like every morning. He poured his coffee into the mug and took his bowl of cereal and coffee to the table and sat down.

A few minutes later, Mimi came out wearing a fake silk robe with a nightgown under it. She walked over to Roger and wrapped her arms around him from behind as he was taking a sip of his coffee, kissing his cheek, taking him aback.

"Good morning baby" She said quietly in his ear. He put down his coffee and told her good morning back.

"How is your morning?" She asks him as she begins to rub his back. He groans and rolls his head back.

"It's getting better" He told her. They heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Mimi yelled.

"It's me, don't bother coming to the door I already found my key" Mark yell back. He came in and saw Mimi rubbing Roger's back at the table. He was confused.

"Hey" He said to them.

"Hey" They responded, Mark then took out his camera and started to film them.

"Here we have Roger and Mimi a week before the wedding. I'm guessing things are good again" He scanned them up and down with the camera.

"Get it away from me" Roger told him, irritated as Mark shoved the camera in his face. Mimi giggled as Mark rolled his eyes and turned off his camera.

"I'll be in my room if you need me" He told them as he left into his room.

"Why are you being so good to me?" Roger asked as he closed his eyes while Mimi continued.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you were all mad at me." He told her. She let go of his back and bent down.

"It doesn't matter anymore." She whispered in his ear, sending shivers up his spine.

"Mimi, we have to talk about it." He told her in a low voice. She sighed, got up, and sat in the chair across from Roger.

"We can't do this" She told him.

"What?" He replied.

"We can't have a baby, it's too much. We can't take care of it, and it could have AIDs or even if it doesn't we won't be here for it long enough. I almost died last year, what will happen when you and I actually do die? And this place is a mess; it's not good for a baby." She tried to explain to him. His facial expression showed that she wasn't exactly getting through.

"You almost died last year because you were on drugs, while living on the street in the middle of winter, and you weren't taking your AZT. There are ways we can prevent it from having AIDs, and we can clean up this place. If and when, god-forbid we're gone, we have amazing people around us to care of it. There's nothing to worry about. You've always said that you always wanted a big family." He tried to convince her, taking her hands in his.

"Do you really thing this could work?" She asked, looking up at him. He nodded.

"Why wouldn't it?" Mimi took a deep breath.

"I guess we're going to have baby then" She said with a smile. Roger smiled, leaning in and kissing her. He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers.

"I love you" He told her in a low voice.

"I love you too" She replied in an equally low voice, she then slid into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck and began to kiss him again.

Mark walked out of his room with his camera in hand. He looked over at Mimi and Roger, seeing that they were busy. He started put on his coat and scarf.

"Guys, I'm going out" He said loudly. They pulled away from each other and looked him.

"okay" Roger said.

"Bye Mark" Mimi said, waving. Mark look his bag and camera and left the two.

"He's gone, let's go" Roger said as he picked Mimi up bridal style. Mimi let out a small laugh as Roger carried her into their bedroom.

* * *

><p><em>I'm sorry that was so cheesy but I had no other way to do it. I hope you fluff-lovers enjoyed it very much.<em>


	7. Stairway

**December 16****th****, 1991**

Roger woke up to a bright light stinging his eyes. He rubbed his eyes and rolled over to find that he was alone. He slowly got up out of bed. He felt that it was freezing so he put on some sweats and went outside.

When he got out of the room he noticed a note taped to the table. He ran to it, almost fearing what was written on it. Notes taped to places kind of gave Roger a feeling of fear ever since April's last note. He picked it up and read. _I'm at the doctor's to see what medications I need to take. They only had an appointment open for 11:45 so I took it, but I let you sleep. If Mark isn't in his room he's probably just out filming. Be back soon, I love you –Mimi _Roger looked at the clock, it was only 12:02. He let out a sigh of relief and began his regular morning routine, coffee and cereal.

When Roger was about to sit down, there was a knock at the door. He put down the cereal and coffee and ran to open it. It was Collins.

"Good morning bitches!" He yelled with a smile on his face and looked around.

"Or just bitch. I couldn't find my keys, but I brought you some breakfast sandwiches, but I see that no one else is here." Collins told him, showing the bag he brought.

"Mark's out, probably filming and Mimi's at the doctor's" Roger told him.

"Oh that's right. I heard a rumor that's going around that there's gonna be a little bohemian running around. A little Davis, a little blonde haired-brown eyed child." Collins said as he sat down on the couch, putting the food down on the coffee table.

"Consider those rumors to be conformed true." Roger said as he sat down next to him, forgetting about the coffee and cereal on the table.

"I knew there was a reason to celebrate" Collins said as he took a bottle of Stoli out of the bag. Roger rolled his eyes.

"You would've drank anyways" He told him. Collins laughed.

"Boy, lighten up." He told Roger as he handed him a cup of the vodka. He took a sip from the cup. They heard someone knock at the door. Roger got up to answer it. He slid open the heavy metal door, assuming it was Mimi and that she forgot her key. When he opened the door, he saw a petite woman standing there. He had no idea who she was, but she looked shockingly like Mimi, the only, well most noticeable thing that was different was her silky, wavy black hair.

"Is Mimi here?" She asked Roger.

"No, she's out. And you are?" Roger questioned her. The woman hesitated to answer him.

"I'm her sister Rosa" She told him. Everything connected than in Roger's head. Collins shifted uncomfortably from where he was on the couch. Rosa took the hint.

"Oh, do you want me to take a message or do you want to come in and wait?" He asked uncomfortably.

"No, it's fine. Just told her I came." Rosa told him quickly as she turned on her heels and began to make her way back down the old stairs. Roger slid the door shut behind her and turned around to Collins.

"What was that?" Collins asked. Roger sat back down next to him.

"Mimi's sister" Roger told him. Collins raised an eyebrow.

"Her sister? I thought she hated her sister."

"She does" Roger told him as he picked up his coffee and took a sip.

"Does she like anyone in her family?" Collins asked.

"Yeah, she likes her brother. That's it." Roger continued to tell him. Collins nodded. All of the sudden they heard yelling from outside in the stairway. They glanced at each other before putting their cups down and getting up to see what's going on. They walked down the stairs to see two women at the bottom. It was Mimi and Rosa. Roger sighed as he leaned against the banister, not knowing what to do with the sibling feud happening before him, Collins stood behind him.

"Rosa, volver a casa. No quiero hablar. No hay nada de qué hablar cuando todo lo que vamos a hacer es criticar a mi estilo de vida." _Rosa, go home. I don't want to talk. There's nothing to talk about when all you're going to do is criticize my lifestyle. _

"Mimi por favor, sólo déjame hablar." _Mimi please just let me talk._

"No Rosa. Yo te di la oportunidad de hablar el otro día y lo arruinó. No tengo tiempo para esto."_ No Rosa. I gave you a chance to talk the other day and you ruined it. I don't have time for this. _Mimi began to walk past her and up the steps.

"Mimi por favor!" _Mimi please! _Rosa shouted after her. Mimi shook her head.

"No" She told her as she continued up the stairs. She approached Roger and Collins, standing in the middle of the stairway. She sighed and continued to walk up with them. They got up to the loft, sliding the door open. Mimi put her bags on the counter, then proceeded to spread herself out on the couch.

"I hate her" She mumbled as Roger sat on the arm of the couch next to her head, he began to play with her hair. "I don't understand why she has to do this. She thinks she's going to fix it than a minute later she'll start criticizing again. I invited her to come to the wedding and that's it. None of this shit was needed, if I knew I wouldn't have invited her at all" She sighed in frustration.

"I know baby but you need to calm down. It's not good for you to get this upset." Roger told her as she sat up, she took a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm alright" She said calmly, taking his hand in hers.

"Guys, I have to go. Tutoring." Collins told them when he noticed the time. He got up from the seat next to the couch. They said goodbye to him as he made his way out the door.

* * *

><p><em>I feel like once Rosa came in, everything stopped making sense. But I didn't know what else to do with it so here it is.<em>


	8. Oh Brother

**December 17, 1991 **

It was 12:30 in the afternoon at the loft, which meant Mimi and Roger had just gotten up, while Mark has been up for hours. Mimi didn't have work for the next couple of weeks because the studio was closed for the holidays. Her usual work days were Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings. Today was Tuesday and she didn't have to worry about work at all. She and Roger were on the couch, her on his lap with their legs spread across the couch. Mimi was feeding Roger cereal while they were both laughing about something, anything. They were very happy at that moment. Mark was sitting at the table, going over something for Alexi.

Then there was a knock at the door. Mimi and Roger didn't even hear it, too caught up in each other. Mark sighed and got up from his work, walking quickly to the door, sliding it open. A man with black hair and caramel colored skin who was wearing worn-out jeans and a leather jacket with a T-shirt under it stood at the door.

"Um, how can I help you?" Mark asked the man.

"Does Mimi Marquez live here?" The man asked in return. He had a thick Spanish accent.

"Yes, she does." Mark told him, he turned to wear Mimi and Roger were sitting. "Mimi!" Mark called to her. She looked up.

"Someone is here for you." He told her. She looked confused when he told her. She put the bowl of cereal down on the coffee table in front of them and got up off of Roger.

"Who is it?" She asked as she tied her fake silk robe while she walked over to the door. When she saw who was standing in the doorway she stopped.

"Fernando?" She said in a low tone. He smiled.

"Mimi" He replied to her. It was her turn to smile.

"I thought you weren't coming until Saturday" She said as she walked in front of Mark and hugged him.

"I came early." He told her, returning the hug. Mark and Roger watched the scene unfold before their eyes. Roger got off the couch, walking to them.

"And you are" Roger questioned as he put a protective arm around Mimi once they pulled away.

"My brother" Mimi told him, turning her head to him.

"Fernando" Fernando said while sticking his hand out, introducing himself. Roger took his hand.

"Roger" He replied, introducing himself back. Their hands part.

"Él es muy sobreprotector Mimi" _He's very overprotective Mimi. _Fernando said to her.

"Fernando!" She snapped at him.

"Hola! Yo no dije que era una mala cosa." _Hey! I didn't say it was a bad thing. _He said, putting his hands up, defending himself. Mimi rolled her eyes.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come in?" She said teasingly to him. He walked inside and slid the door closed behind him. Everyone made their way to the couch.

"Nice place you got Hermana(_sister_)" Fernando commented as he sat down on the couch with Mimi next to him and Roger next to her. Mark sat on the chair next to the couch.

"You're such a liar." She responded. He laughed.

"No no, I really like it. Better than my place at home" He told her.

"How is it in Texas?" She asked. Roger and Mark sat there uncomfortably.

"It's good, different from here." He told her. "If you don't mind, where is the bathroom?" He asked. She pointed him to it and he got up and went to it. Once he shut the door, Mimi then turned to Mark and Roger.

"You two need to start talking and engaging in the conversation" She told them harshly. "Or at least you do" She said directly to Roger.

"Alright, alright I'll talk to him." Roger replied. Mimi squeezed his leg gently.

"Good" Fernando exited the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

"I'm sorry Hermana but I have to go" He told Mimi. Mimi got up and gave her brother a hug.

"Aw alright. But we need to have dinner together before the wedding, okay?" She told him. He nodded.

"Of course" He assured her as they pulled away. He walked up to Roger and shook his hand once again.

"It was nice to meet you finally, Roger" He said to him politely.

"You too" Roger replied as their hands let go. Fernando turned and shook Mark's hand.

"And you, um-"

"Mark, I'm Mark" Mark told him.

"Yes, Mark, nice to meet you as well." Fernando said to him.

"You too" Mark responded as they let go.

"Son muy tranquila" _They're very quiet._ Fernando whispered to Mimi well walking to the door.

"Es por la mañana para todo el mundo aquí, sólo están cansados ." _It's morning for everyone here, they're just tired. _She replied just as lowly. He nodded.

"Well I must go, Hermana. Bye" Mimi waved and yelled goodbye after him as he left. She slid the door shut.

"That saved me" Roger said from the couch. Mimi walked back over to the couch and sat down next to him.

"No, you need to actually try to talk to him next time we see him." She told him sternly.

"Fine" He replied coldly. Mark was sitting there silently, watching.

"Mark, are you okay?" Mimi asked, concerned. She noticed how he was so out of it lately.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about something for work." He assured her. She nodded. He was lying.

Something was bothering Mark. He could feel himself drifting from everyone else. All he did was work and film and film for work while all of his friends were getting on with their lives. Time was slipping by him like that. His friends didn't have much time left in their lives either, so he should've been making the best of their time together. Should've, doesn't mean he was exactly.


	9. Another Call

**December 19, 1991 **

It was noon on this chilly Thursday. It was snowing lightly outside. Morning sickness was getting the best of Mimi and she was running out of Pepto Bismol, again. Roger was still asleep and Mark was in his room. She figured she could hold the remaining contains of her stomach down long enough to go out and get more medication. She put on her leopard print coat and took her purse and went on her way, out of the loft and down to the street.

She heard the chime of a bell when she opens the door to the drug store. She walked up and down the medication aisles until she came to the stomach pain relief section. She grabbed and bottle of Pepto Bismol and a container of Tums and then made her way to the refrigerated section. She took out a bottle of 7-UP and then made her way to the checkout counter. While she was waiting on line, she felt someone tap on her shoulder. She turned to see who it was.

"Not feeling well?" He asked. It was Benny.

"No, I have a stomachache." She told him with a slight smile. Mimi didn't realize how raspy her voice was from getting sick all morning until then. Mimi and Roger weren't exactly telling many people yet about the pregnancy. Especially their families. Mimi knew Roger wouldn't appreciate it very much if she told Benny, so she kept quiet about it.

"Aw, well I hope you're better by the wedding." He said comfortingly. She just smiled again and thanked him, turning back around. He was coming to the wedding. Mimi invited him, but not without a fight with Roger about it.

As Mimi was leaving she heard someone calling after her.

"Mimi wait!" Benny called after her. She turned around and waited for him to reach her.

"Would you like to go out one day, get coffee or something to eat before the wedding? It's okay if you're busy. I know you're probably dealing with the people setting up the wedding and the guest but you know. You can bring Roger if you want." He asked. Mimi thought about it for a minute.

"Maybe, I'll try. If I'm not too busy one day. I'll call you, okay?" She told him. He nodded.

"Alright. See you" He said as he was about to leave.

"See you" She replied with a small wave as they parted ways. She couldn't risk standing in the snow like this for another minute and began to walk back to the loft in a hurry.

When she slid the loft door open, Roger looked up from the phone. He immediately hung up the phone and ran over to her, pulling her tightly into his arms.

"Mimi! Where the hell were you?" He questioned her.

"I went to go get more medication because I have bad morning sickness. I'm sorry I didn't leave a note." She told him, her voice still raspy.

"You scared the shit out of me" He told her, still holding her tightly as if he'd lose her if he let go.

"I'm sorry baby." She apologized.

"Just tell me next time, okay?"

"okay" She muffled into his chest. He slowly let go of her.

"Did you take your pills?" He asked. She nodded. Mimi now had to take double the AZT and other pills.

"Yes, I did. Now calm down." She told him as she put her stuff on the counter. By now she didn't really feel that sick anymore so she decided to put everything away.

"I am calm." He said as he watched her. She turned and walked back over to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"You're very tense baby" She said to him. He sighed.

"I'm trying" He told her. "Aren't you going to take whatever you bought?" He asked. She shook her head.

"No, I don't really feel sick anymore." She told him. He loosened up a bit, but still got out of Mimi's grip. He walked away from her and sat down on the old couch, running his fingers through his long, dirty blonde hair while sighing. Mimi went over sat down next to him, taking his hand into hers.

"What's wrong?" She asked him. He turned his head towards her.

"My dad called" He began to tell her.

"Did you get into a fight?" She asked, cutting him off.

"No, it was about my mom." He answered.

"What about her?"

"She's in the hospital." Roger told her.

* * *

><p><em>I meant to post this sooner, I'm sorry. I probably won't post anything tomorrow so everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving! <em>


	10. Hesitant

**December 20, 1991 **

Roger walked down the hall of the cardiac wing of the hospital in Scarsdale with flowers in one hand, and Mimi's hand in other. They stopped in front of room 215, taking a slight look in to make sure it was the right room and walked into the room when they caught a glance of Roger's mother.

Roger became hesitant when he took a good look at his mother. She looked pale and frail, but peaceful, probably because she's sleeping. He let go of Mimi's hand and gently put the flowers down on the windowsill. Mimi sat down on a chair next to her bed, against the windowsill. Roger sat down in the chair next her, staring at his mother. He had never seen his mother in such a bad state before, it made him feel bad about not being there years.

Shattering his thoughts, a figure appeared in front of them. He looked up and saw his brother Randy.

"Hey guys" He whispered to them.

"Hey" They replied back in a whisper. He picked up a chair from the corner of the room and brought it over to where they were sitting, setting it down gently so he didn't wake up his mother.

"She's been asleep for a while now" He told them, continuing to whisper.

"How is she?" Roger asked.

"As good as you can be after you just had a heart attack." Randy answered. Roger leaned back and sighed. Slowly, Mrs. Davis began to wake up. She opened her eyes and looked around, seeing Roger and Mimi there sitting next to Randy. She smiled, pushing a button making her sit up.

"Roger, honey" She said once she was stand up. He took her hand.

"Hey Mom, how are you?" She smiled weakly at her son.

"I'm alright. Feeling better than before."

"That's good, mom. I'm sorry we didn't come sooner." She waved it off.

"Honey, you didn't know."

"I know but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad."

"You're here now, and that's all that matters" She told him. He nodded, not wanting to upset his mother.

"I'll be right back" Randy said as he got up and headed out.

"Everyone's been in and out but he hasn't left at all." Mrs. Davis admitted.

"Why not?" Roger questioned. She shrugged.

"I tell him to go home and rest but he insist on staying." She tells him. That was Randy.

"So anyways, some two are getting married very soon." Mrs. Davis changed the subject with a smile. "And of course I'm coming no matter what" She added.

"Mom-" Roger began.

"No. I'm going not matter what and that's that." Roger sighed in frustration. Mimi smiled, seeing where he gets his stubbornness from. In the middle of this, a nurse walked in.

"I have to take Mrs. Katie Davis for some tests." She read off of her clipboard. Roger and Mimi got up.

"Alright. Mom we'll be back either later or tomorrow, okay?" Roger told her.

"Alright, but don't worry about me, I'm fine. Worry about yourselves." She insisted.

"Okay mom, bye. I love you." Roger told his mother. She smiled.

"I love you too" She replied.

"Bye Mrs. Davis" Mimi said, smiling at her soon-to-be mother in law.

"Bye Mimi dear. I prefer Katie, honey." Mrs. Davis replied with a smile.

"Alright, I'll try to remember" Mimi told her. Roger took Mimi's hand as they made their way out of the room, looking back and waving one last time before exiting the room. In the hallway they ran into Randy and told him what was going on so he didn't freak out when he got back.

When they arrived at the car Mimi spoke up.

"Baby, maybe I should drive." She suggested.

"No. It's an hour long drive, I'll drive." Roger insisted.

"Are you sure?" Mimi questioned.

"Positive."

"Alright" Mimi opened the door and slid into her seat. Roger opened the door to the driver's side and slid into his seat. He buckled his seatbelt and turned on the old car, beginning to exit the parking lot.

"It'll be okay" Mimi tried to assure him in a low voice while taking his hand that wasn't on the wheel into hers.

"But what if she isn't okay?" He snapped back.

"She'll be okay, don't be a pessimistic." She told him, he sighed, worried about his mother.

By the time they got back to the city Mimi had fallen asleep. The one hour ride from the New York suburb of the city turned into a three hour one because of traffic. Roger turned off the car, getting out and making his way around to Mimi's side. He opened the door and took off her seatbelt, trying best not to wake her. He picked her up gently, closing the car door behind him. He made his way up the loft carrying Mimi bridal style. He knocked on the door of the loft, unable to open it with Mimi in his arms. Mark opened to door seeing Roger carrying a sleeping Mimi. He stepped out of the way while Roger carried her in, bringing her to their room and laying her down on the bed, taking off her shoes and pulling the covers over her. When he was finished he came out and sat down on the couch, letting out a great sigh.

"Rough time?" Mark asked, sitting down with a coke can in hand.

"It was hard to see her like that." Roger confessed. "Even though she looked horrible, she sit acted as if nothing was wrong. How does she do that? How has she always done that?" He continued on. Mark put a hand on his best friend's shoulder.

"Things will get better." Mark assured him.

* * *

><p><em>So sorry I didn't update for a while. I was so busy the whole holiday weekend. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!<em>


	11. Interruption

**December 21, 1991**

The bright light coming from the window hit Mimi's eyes the moment she opened them, causing her to squint for sight. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw that she was still wearing her street clothes and coat. Confused, she got out of bed and went out of the bedroom. When she came out she saw Roger cooking eggs.

"Good morning" She said to him once she got closer. He turned around, grabbing her by her waist and kissing her, sharing a long, deep kiss with her.

"Good morning beautiful" He responded in a low voice once a he pulled away slightly, she smiled.

"Morning baby" She replied.

"Sleep well?" He asked.

"yeah, how long was I asleep?"

"From when we were in the car to now. And now it's 11:30 Saturday morning." He explained to her.

"Your eggs are burning." Mimi told him when she eyed the scrambled eggs that were turning black. Roger quickly let go of her and turned around, turning off the stove and putting the eggs on a plate. He brought them to the table with Mimi following. He sat down with Mimi sitting on his lap. She picked up the fork and began to feed Roger.

"I can feed myself." He protested. She rolled her eyes and handed him the fork.

As he was eating, Mimi got up and ran to the bathroom, emptying her stomach into the toilet. Roger heard her from the kitchen and put down his fork, running after her. He held her hair and rubbed her back as she leaned over the toilet. She leaned back and Roger wiped her mouth with some toilet paper.

"I'm fine" She tried to assure him, pushing his hand away. She got up off the floor, trying best not to need his help, and brushed her teeth. When she was finished, she went out to the loft and sat down on the couch, wrapping a blanket around herself. Roger followed her out put the dishes away. When he was done, he went over to Mimi on the couch, sitting by her feet.

"I'm going to the hospital, okay?" He told her, taking her hand in his. She nodded.

"Okay, tell your mom I say hi and I hope she feels better." She replied. He leaned over and left a trail of kiss from her forehead down to her nose and ending at her lips. After a minute, he pulled away from her.

"I love you" he whispered to her.

"I love you too" She whispered in return. He gave her one last kiss, put it was interrupted by someone's voice.

"It's Mimi and Roger, three days before the wedding. You wouldn't even think a big event was happening here because of the fact that it's so calm. I remember my sister's wedding was crazy days before the actual wedding. I have no idea how they do it." Mark narrated in a low voice as he filmed Roger and Mimi on the couch. They both looked up at him.

"Remind me again why we've allowed you to document our lives for the past months?" Roger asked, irritated that he was interrupted. Mimi giggled while Mark rolled his eyes.

"Because you'll want all of this later and will thank me." Mark told him. It was now Roger's turn to roll eyes. He pecked Mimi's lips, then getting up off the couch and going into his room getting ready to leave. Mark shut off his camera.

"You know he just gets frustrated." Mimi told Mark in a raspy voice.

"Yeah, believe me, I know." Mark replied.

"He knows you mean well and he appreciates it." She continued.

"Yeah, I know Meems. Do you want me to make you some tea?" He offered, noticing her raspy voice from getting sick.

"If you wouldn't mind." She answered. He assured her it wasn't a problem and put the tea kettle full of water on the stove. Just then, Mimi's beeper went off.

"Is that you or me or us?" Roger yelled from the bedroom when he heard the beeper go off.

"It's me." Mimi yelled back as she got off of the couch to take her AZT. She swallowed the pill with a sip of water. She put the glass down and then look down at herself and saw that she was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. She then took off her coat, hanging it up on the coat rack and then went into her and Roger's bedroom to get changed into more comfortable clothes.

When she went inside the room, Roger had just gotten out of the shower. He was exiting the bathroom with just a towel around his waist.

"Hey baby" She said to him as she looked through her closet for something to change into.

"Hey" He replied as he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her neck, slightly lifting her off the ground. She giggled a little and rolled her head back.

"Baby, you're going to be late." She told him. He turned her around and gave her passionate kiss.

"My mom can wait." He said in a low voice as he pushed her against the doorway of the closet. Mimi was shaking her head as they shared rough kisses.

"No she can't" She told him in an equally low voice, in between a kiss. Ignoring her, he wrapped his arms around her, picking her up while continuing to kiss her. She wrapped her legs around him as he carried her to their bed; he threw her down on the bed and got on top of her.

Mimi was sitting on the couch waiting for Roger to come back from the hospital. She was wearing sweats with her fake silk robe over them while drinking tea and watching TV. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the phone ringing, she waited to hear who it was.

"Hello Mimi. It's Katherine Conners, I'm the one who is doing your wedding cake and I was wondering what time you wanted us to-" Mimi got up and ran to the phone.

"Hey Katherine." She answered. "What time you should bring the cake? Well the ceremony is at 2 and the reception starts at 6 and goes into the night. What do you think?" There was a knock on the door in the background.

"Could you excuse me for a minute?" Mimi said to Katherine as she put her hand over the part you talk into.

"Mark! Can you get the door?" She yelled. Mark came running out of his room and Mimi went back to talking to Katherine. "I'm sorry about that." She said into the phone.

Mark slid open the door, seeing Benny standing there.

"Rent isn't due yet." Mark spat out, speaking his first thoughts.

"I know" Benny began. "I came to see Mimi" He told him.

"She's busy." Mark told him, nodding back to Mimi on the phone.

"I'll wait." Benny insisted, pushing past Mark and walking in. Mark sighed and shut the door.

"No, it was supposed to be red" Mimi told Katherine through the phone.

"No, it was chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, with red and silver for design of whatever you come up with. I told some woman named Jessica the other day and she said she'd tell you." Mimi was now in a debate as to what the cake was supposed to be. Benny sat down on the couch while Mark leaned against the counter.

"Okay, well thank you. You have the time to come right? Okay, yes. Thank you. Goodbye" Mimi hung up the phone with a sigh.

"People can be so stupid sometimes." She complained to Mark. Mark just point to the direct of the couch. Mimi gave him a confused look and turned to the couch. She saw Benny sitting there.

"He came here for you." Mark told her. She sighed and went over to the couch.

"Hey" She said to him as she approached the couch.

"Hey" He replied, getting up.

"I wanted to see you." He told her.

"I realized that, what is it?"

"I just wanted to-" He began, but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. They turned and saw Roger coming in.

"What's he doing here?" Roger asked when he saw Benny.

"I was just asking the same thing." Mimi replied, looking at Benny.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay. You didn't look good the other day." Benny told her, not looking a Roger.

"I'm fine. It was just a little bug." Mimi assured him. He glanced at all the medication on the counter.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Positive" She told him.

"Alright, see you all on Tuesday." He said as he started to make his way out.

"Bye" Mimi called after him.

"Bye" He shut the door behind him.

"That was weird." Mark said. Roger took off his leather jacket and hung it up.

"Yeah, it was" Mimi agreed as she sat down on the couch.

"He wanted to tell you something else probably, but then didn't because I came in." Roger told her as he sat down next to her. Mark looked at his watch.

"Shit, I have to go. Alexi wants me to fill in for someone tonight." He told them as he started putting on his coat and stripped scarf. He got his bag and camera and headed for the door.

"Bye guys" He said to them.

"Bye" They both replied as he left.

"How's your mom?" Mimi asked.

"She's getting better" Roger told her.

"That's good baby." She said as she slid into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah. I miss you when you're not with me." He said in a low voice into her ear.

"I miss you too baby" She replied in an equally low voice. He kissed the top of her and smiled. But he kept thinking about Benny coming over and wondered what he wanted.


	12. Live

**December 21, 1991 10PM**

Mark was walking the empty New York streets alone on the cold Saturday night. It was something he'd been doing a lot lately. He had walked all the way uptown from Alphabet City. He was on 60th Street, and he decided to enter the bar he was just passing by. He sat down on a stool and ordered a beer. There was barely anyone there, seeing it as only 10 and bars and clubs usually didn't start getting busy until 12.

The bartender put the beer down in front of Mark. He picked it up and took a sip, then putting it back down.

"Rough night?" A voice coming from the right of Mark asked. He looked to see who it was. A woman with wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and glasses. She was wearing jeans, but her coat was covering whatever shirt she was wearing.

"Rough night, rough week, rough month, rough year, rough years. It varies." He replied to the woman. She gave him a slight smile.

"I know the feeling. I'm Sarah, by the way. I'll listen if you need to talk." She offered as the bartender placed her drink in front of her.

"Mark. Thanks" He replied, showing it was that comfortable. She just gave him another slight smile.

Minutes had passed. Mark had just been staring at his drink the whole time, thinking. He doesn't even like beer, it wasn't like him to just go to a bar and sit and drink.

"Everyone is dying around me." He finally spoke up. Sarah turned her head towards him.

"What?" She asked, not hearing him.

"Everyone, all of my friends. They're either dying or moving on with their lives or both. And then I'm just here. Nowhere." He took another sip of his beer.

"Then live." She simply told him.

"What?" He questioned back, nearly choking on his drink.

"Live. Don't just sit here in your misery. If you do than you're just slowly dying yourself. Embrace the time you have with your friends, instead of thinking of how you won't have them anymore at one point. Take risks. Live your life to the fullest. There's no day but today." She told him. His eyes grew large.

"Where did you hear that?" He asked immediately.

"What?" She questioned back.

"No day but today, where did you get that from?" He asked fully now.

"Oh. Isn't that just a saying?" She answered back.

"Oh, I guess." His hope had fallen again. He was hoping that she might have had some connection to his old, long-gone friend.

"Why?" Now it was her to ask.

"Oh, it's just that I used to have a friend who used to say that. H-she passed away a while ago now though." He told her. She then gave him a sad, comforting smile.

"I'm sorry" She told him quietly.

"It's alright." He assured her. She took a sip of her drink as Mark stared out into nothing.

"My boyfriend dumped me five months ago." She spat out. He turned and looked at her.

"What?"

"My boyfriend dumped me five months ago and I'm still not over it." She admitted to him.

"My girlfriend dumped me over two years ago, for a woman. I still do anything for her." He admitted in return. Then they both shared a smile between them.

"I wish I was someone that could let themselves get wasted and have a good time, but I can't." She said, this time it was followed by a long gulp of her drink.

"You have no idea." He responded. She drank the last sip of her drink, then slamming the glass down.

"Here's an idea. Let's do something crazy tonight." Mark looked hesitant while Sarah seemed excited.

"Something crazy?" He questioned. She nodded.

"Yes. Something we both really need. Let's leave the city for the night."

"Leave the city?" He looked at her like she was crazy.

"Yes! I have a car. Come on, let's go!" She exclaimed as she got off the bar stool. Mark left a tip for the both of them, then got up and followed her.

Mimi folded the pair of pants and put it in the basket, then took a shirt from the laundry bag that Roger just brought home from the Laundromat. She folded it and placed it in the basket, on top of the pants. Roger came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck gently. She turned her head and he raised his head, his lips meeting hers.

"Hey baby" He said in a low voice once they pulled away. She smiled.

"Hey" She responded back.

"I have to go to work" He informed her.

"Why?" Her smile faded. He chuckled a little.

"Because it's my shift tonight."

"I like it better when you're working the day shift with all the drunks at two in the afternoon. Not on a Saturday night where there's beautiful women that can take you away from me." She told him.

"Why would I want any of them when I have the most beautiful woman in the world at home?" He replied. She smiled.

"What a way to save yourself." She said to him. He laughed and kissed her again.

"I love you" He told her once they pulled away.

"I love you too" She responded.

"I have to go now though." He kissed the top of her head and let go of her. He put on his jacket as Mimi watched him from afar.

"I love you" She called after him as he slid open the door. He looked back with a smile.

"I love you too" He responded. Than he simply slid the door shut behind him.

Roger rushed down the stairs in a hurry. In his rush, he accidently pushed someone. He began to turn to the person.

"Oh I'm so sor-" He began to say as he turned to the person, but stopped when he saw it was Benny going upstairs. The atmosphere grew thick between the two.

"Is Mimi home?" Benny asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence between the two men.

"Uh, yeah" Roger told him. Benny nodded, then continued to make his way back up the stairs. Roger stayed put for a moment, then proceed to go down the stairs.

Once Benny made it up the stairs, he knocked on the door to the loft. He stood there for a moment as he heard Mimi yell to wait a minute and then followed by the sound of scrambling. After for what seemed like eternity, Mimi finally opened the door. She looked surprised to see Benny there.

"Oh hey Benny." She said, in a tone to match her expression.

"Hey Mimi. There was something I wanted to tell you earlier that I didn't get out." He admitted to her. He know that she probably figured out by now that he was afraid to say it in front Roger.

"Okay, well come in." She told him as she stood to the side to let him in. He walked past her and she slid the door shut behind him. She turned towards him.

"So what is it?" She asked.

"Alison and I got into a fight, so there's a big chance she won't come." Mimi invited Alison just to be nice. Obviously they weren't the best of friends with Alison knowing that Mimi was the other woman at one point.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure things will get better between you two." Mimi tried to comfort him. Benny sighed. He wasn't telling the whole truth.

"It was a really big fight." He began.

"How big?" She asked.

"I walked in on her with another man." He spit out. Mimi quieted, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Benny." She told him in a kind, sincere voice. He looked at her and gave her a half smile.

"Thanks" He replied. He looked at his watch.

"I have to go for a meeting with someone." He told her. They shared an awkward hug.

"Bye Benny." She told him as they pulled away from each other.

"Bye Meems." He said as he escorted himself to the door. He slid the door open, walking out. Then sliding it closed behind him. Then he walked down the stairs, continuing to make his way out of the building.

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><p><em>I am I the only one who makes sure that I have at least 2 or 3 chapters already written ahead of the next one to be posted? Probably. Tumblr has been messing up the past two days which has caused me to write a lot. I was thinking of doing a marathon but then I was like nah. Anyways, shout out to cece3457! The only person who reviews and her reviews GMH. Thanks for reading!<em>


	13. Where are you?

**December 22, 1991**

Mark opened his eyes, being blinded by the light. He squinted and grabbed his glasses off the nightstand next to him. He looked at the room around him. Where was he? Why wasn't he in the loft? How did he get here? Than he remembered the night before. He quickly looked next to him. There he saw a beautiful blonde woman lying next to him asleep. It was Sarah. He looked at the clock next to the bed. It was a little after 11:30, he never got up that late. He felt it hard to move from the position he was in, so he just laid there for a while.

After a while, he felt a shift next to him. He looked over to see Sarah finally waking up. He watched her at first, but when she turned over to face him he quickly looked away. She turned over, facing where Mark was lying. Her blue eyes grew large, seeing a figure next to her. She reached over the nightstand and put on her glasses and looked back to him.

"Oh thank god it's just you." She said, relieved.

"What do you mean thank god it's me? This is insane! I can't believe I did this. My friend is getting married in two days and I'm the best man and I left!" Mark started to panic, thinking of what he had done.

"Oh my god, you're worse than me. We didn't even do anything wrong. Look, our clothes are still on, we're in upstate New York, we're only a few hours from the city. It's not like we drove to California. Calm down." She tried to assure him about the situation.

"I have to call the loft." He pulled the blanket off of himself and got off the bed, walking out of the bedroom. Sarah watched him from the bed, sighing as he walked out.

"Where is the phone?" He shouted from the hallway.

"There's one downstairs in the living room on the side table, another one in the kitchen at the end of the counter, and one in here." She shouted back. The sound of footsteps going down the stairs is what she got in return.

Mark picked up the phone in the living room, and dialed the number of the loft. He was close enough to couch to sit down but he remained standing, too crazed to sit. He heard the dial tone, not expecting anyone to pick up as usual.

"Hello?" Mimi answered the phone with a worried tone to her voice.

"Hey Mimi, it's Mark" He began.

"Mark! Oh thank god. Where the hell are you?"

"I'm fine. Didn't send a search party out for me, did you?" He told her, assuring he's okay.

"We did, actually. Everyone's out looking for you. Of course, I wasn't allowed to. I had to stay here, seeing if you ever came home or called. Or that's what Roger said I was supposed to do. He was just making it seem like I was helping because he didn't want me to be out in the cold for long." Mark chuckled, knowing Roger's over protectiveness.

"Well tell everyone I'm fine. I'll be back in a few hours. The number for here is 212-555-4365 but I'll be out of here soon." He told her.

"Okay, but where are you?" Mimi asked as she jot down the number.

"Okay, bye Meems" He ignored the question, hanging up the phone.

"Wait!" Mimi yelled into the phone. Too late. He already hung up. She sighed and put down the phone.

Mark sat on the couch, putting his head in his hands, letting out a great sigh. He felt a hand on his back from behind.

"I'm sorry." Sarah told him. He sighed and picked up his head.

"No, I'm sorry. It's not your fault. If it was just a normal day I wouldn't even be worried about anyone. Last night was the most fun I've had in a long time, actually. I never do anything crazy, ever." He turned his head facing her and smiled. She returned a smile back to him.

"Come on, there's this great place for breakfast in town." She told him. He got up and she walked to his side. He kissed her, soft and gently. She blushed slightly and returned it. Moments later they pulled away, walking up the stairs hand in hand.

Mimi sat on the couch, watching TV, waiting for someone to come. After a while, she heard the door slide open. She looked up from the TV and saw Collins walking in. He sat down next to her.

"Hey Meems. I haven't found him yet." He informed her.

"I know. He called a little while ago. I wish Roger would just come back." She told him. His face than had a hopeful look to it.

"He called?"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't tell me where he was. He did give me the number though, it's next to the phone. He just said he'd be home in a few hours." She continued to tell.

"This boy doesn't know what he's getting himself into." Collins said as he got off the couch and walked over to the phone. He picked up the phone and dialed the number, waiting for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" A female voice answered the phone. Collins now had a confused expression on his face.

"Um, hello. Is Mark Cohen there?" He asked the woman. Mimi watched the ordeal from afar.

"Um yeah, hold on a second." Collins waited.

"A woman picked up." Collins mouthed to Mimi. She had a confused look on her face then.

"Hello?" Mark picked up the phone.

"Boy, where the fuck are you? You albino shithead." Collins said into the phone.

"I'm fine, Collins. I just went upstate for a little while. I'll be home in a few hours, okay?" Mark assured him.

"Fine. But get your ass back home soon. You have everyone worried sick. By the way, who is that lovely lady?"

"I have to go, bye" Mark quietly hung up the phone. Collins let out a chuckle and hung up the phone.

"What's going on?" Mimi asked as he sat back down next to her.

"It seems like our little boy has grown into a man. Running away with woman. Probably has them lined up down the street." Collins told her, trying his best to stay serious, but cracked a smile in the ended. Mimi playfully hit him and laughed.

"We better go to Life. Roger's probably there. You know how he gets. He couldn't find him so he just went to go sit in his self-pity alone." Mimi said as she got up. She puts on her coat and got her purse. Collins stood up, waiting for Mimi to finish. Once she did they made their way out of the loft, down the stairs and out of the building.

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><p><em>Actual reality, act up, fight AIDS! Cheesy of me to put it but it's World AIDS Day today. Think about Mimi and Roger and Collins and Angel. Spread awareness. Fight for a cure. <em>


	14. Bar

**December 22, 1991 12:45PM **

Roger was sitting at the bar in the Life Café with a bar in front of him. To his right was Benny, a shocking sight to see the two sitting with each other. He too had a beer in front of him. When Roger walked in, he saw Benny sitting there. He for some reason was drawn to sit next to him. Benny had been looking for Mark too, only because Mimi called him. But he gave up earlier than Roger. They did some small talk at first, but now sat in silence together.

Two women sat at the end of the bar. One with long, red hair, and the other with thick, long, black hair. The red head at green eyes, while the one with black hair had brown eyes. She had a beer while the red head was chugging down margaritas like there's no tomorrow, and it was only just past 12:45. The red head saw Roger out of the corner of her eye, and he came as a familiar face to her.

"You" She slurred, pointing towards Roger. He turned towards her with a confused looked at first, then realizing who it was.

"You, you, youuuu. You're the reason my sister is dead! It's all your fault! If she didn't get involved with a fuck up, rocker boy like you she would still be here!" She shouted across the bar. Roger let out a deep sigh.

"Look Clara, you know I'm sorry. But it wasn't even just my fault. Look at you, you're doing the same thing you always did. You drink all day and never stop. Do you even remember what it feels like to be sober? At least I got my life together after what happened to April, you haven't changed at all though." He spat back at her. She was April's sister, Clara. And April's family wasn't too fond of Roger, especially after her death.

"Don't you turn this around on me! It's your fault! Alllll yours Roger Davis. Just seeing your face disgusts me." She slurred. He just rolled his eyes and ignored her.

After hearing about how horrible he was for over ten minutes, Roger felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and someone sit down next to him on his left side.

"Hey baby" Mimi whispered in his ear. He turned his head and saw her there.

"Oh hey babe." He replied.

"Mark called." She informed him/

"Really? Is he okay?"

"Yeah he's fine, ran away with some girl, but should be home in a few hours." Collins joined in.

"He what?" Roger exclaimed in shock.

"Don't even get me started on it. Just be glad he's okay." Collins told him. He then ordered a beer from the bartender.

"Shit. I hope Maureen and Joanne realize where we are when no one is in the loft. I forgot to leave a note." Mimi said, remembering what she had forgotten to do.

"They'll be fine. Collins assured her. Roger moved around, facing Mimi. She sat on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. Clara spotted it from the corner of her eye.

"Hey Davis, is this your new slut that replaced my sister? Are you going to fuck up her life too?" She slurred at them. Now he was getting mad.

"Just shut up Clara. Disgusting drunk." Mimi looked at Roger confused.

"Who is that?" She whispered to him.

"No one important. I'll tell you later." He told her. She just nodded. Just then, Maureen and Joanne walked in together.

"Finally! There you all are." Joanne said, taking a seat next to Collins. Maureen then sat next to her.

"We couldn't find Marky, and I guess you guys didn't either." Maureen told them all.

"No, but he did call. He was upstate with some girl. He's coming home soon." Mimi informed them.

"A girl? Why would Marky run away with some girl we didn't know?" Maureen said after she ordered herself a drink. Mimi, Collins, and Joanne started laughing while Roger and Benny cracked some smiles.

"Honeybear, we're not the boss of him. He can do whatever he wants." Joanne told her.

"I know but he can't just leave without telling anyone!" Maureen argued.

"Maureen, calm down. The little albino shit head is gonna be okay." Collins told her. Maureen rolled her eyes as Roger started laughing, remembering Collins' high school nickname for Mark. Collins would always call him that to make him feel uncomfortable or when he did something wrong, or just to mess with him.

After a while, everyone except for Benny, went back to the loft. He claimed he had somewhere to be. Clara had stopped bothering Roger; she got so drunk that she didn't even realize where she was after a while. Everyone was just sitting around, talking.

At around 6:00, Mark opened the door to the building he lived him, Sarah right behind him. She followed him up the creaky, old stairs. Once they finally got up to the loft door, Mark turned to Sarah.

"Maybe you should stay out here for a minute?" Mark suggested. Sarah nodded in agreement.

"Okay. I'll wait here." She told him. He gave her a quick kiss, then proceeded to opening the door.

Everyone inside the loft heard the door open. They all looked at the door to see who it was. It was Mark. Maureen got right up and ran over to him, hugging him so tight he was starting to suffocate.

"Pookie! You're okay!" She exclaimed.

"Yes Maureen, I'm fine. Hey guys-" He began. Maureen let go of him then.

"Hey guys? Hey guys yourself. You know, you could at least leave a note for someone, you albino fuck." Collins cut him off.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'll remember that next time. I didn't mean to cause a scare." He told everyone.

"What a scare you did cause. We were thinking about calling your mother to see if you were there." Roger told him. Mark's eyes grew wide.

"You didn't, did you?" Mark asked, horrified of having to deal with his mother's worried phone calls for weeks, telling him to come home to her.

"No, you're lucky." Roger told him. Mark let out a sigh of relieve.

"Well, I have someone for you guys to meet." He told them. They all watched as he opened the door, went out of the loft for a minute, then came back in with a woman with blonde hair and glasses standing next to him.

"Everyone, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is everyone."

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><p><em>I feel like I didn't post in forever. Reviews would be really nice.<em>


	15. Meeting the Group

**December 22, 1991 6:11PM**

"Everyone, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is everyone." Sarah smiled and said hello shyly to everyone with a wave. Everyone smiled and said hello back.

"This is Collins." Mark said, pointing to Collins who was sitting the old, duct taped, beaten up chair.

"And then on the couch we have Roger and Mimi, the ones who are getting married. And on the other chair there's Maureen with Joanne sitting on the arm. And that's everyone." Mark said once he finished individually introducing everyone.

"Well, take off your coat, sit down, make yourself at home." He told her. Mimi sat up on Roger's lap and put her feet on the ground to make more room. Sarah took off her coat and handed it to Mark, then went and sat down next to Mimi and Roger, on the other side of the couch, leaving a gap between them. Mark took her coat and hung it up. He then took off his coat and scarf and hung them up as well. When he was finished, he walked over to everyone and filled the gap that separated Roger and Mimi from Sarah, hanging his arm over her shoulder.

"So Sarah, what do you do for a living?" Maureen asked, interested in finding out about Mark's new girlfriend.

"I'm actually a baker. Cakes and other things, but cakes are my main thing. I don't own my own bakery yet but I work at one now." Sarah told her. Everyone just nodded, listening.

"And how did you meet Mark? What makes you so interested in him? Why is the match for you? Hm?" Maureen started to question her.

"Honeybear!" Joanne snapped at her.

"Maureen, this isn't 20 questions, leave the girl alone." Collins told Maureen. Maureen then just rolled her eyes and quieted down.

Everyone was just engaging in all different conversations. Mimi was very quiet during this, not that she didn't like Sarah, but her mind was elsewhere.

"Honey, can we go talk somewhere else for a minute?" Mimi asked Roger in a quiet voice.

"Um, sure." He replied in a confused tone. He put down his beer and got up with her. No one really noticed them go; they were all too caught up in their conversations. Mimi took Roger into their bedroom, shutting the door behind them, sitting down on the edge of the bed. He sat down next to her, wrapping one warm around her waist.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He asked in a concerned voice.

"Who was that girl at the bar who was yelling at us earlier? It's been on my mind the whole time." She asked in return. He sighed, leaving his one arm around her and took her hand with his other hand, holding it.

"That was April's sister, Clara. She's a crazy drunk. She always has been. Don't let anything she said get to you, okay?" He told her, looking her right in the eyes. She just nodded. She still had an upset look to her. He pulled her on to his lap, wrapping both of his arms around her, and kissed the top of her head.

"Is something else bothering you? He asked in a low voice with his head on top of hers.

"I don't know. I'm just nervous. What if I mess up at the wedding? What if I'm walking down the aisle and all of the sudden I trip and fall in the middle of the aisle? What if I-"

"Shh" He cut of her rant. "You're going to be fine. Nothing is going to go wrong, okay? No one else will matter except me and you. You're going to be perfect, everything is going to be perfect. I love you, remember that" She looked up at him for a moment, then kissed him, gently at first but it grew more and more passionate. After a few minutes they pulled away from each other.

"I love you" She whispered with her forehead pressed against his.

"I love you too." He whispered back.

"We have to go back out there." She told him. He groaned.

"Why? I just want to stay here with you, my beautiful fiancé." She blushed, but still insisted that they have to go back out to everyone else.

"Alright fine, but only for you" He said. She smiled and got up with him. He took his hand in hers, and walked back out to everyone else.

Later that night, everyone had gone home and it was now just Roger, Mimi and Mark in the loft. It was 2:30 in the morning when Roger and Mimi were finally getting into bed. Mimi had on one of Roger's shirts with pajama pants on, while Roger just had an undershirt and his boxers on. He climbed into bed next Mimi and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up against his chest.

"This is the last time we'll be sleeping together before we're married." He told her. She looked up at him.

"I know, so maybe we should to sleep." She said she as she buried her face in his chest. He smiled and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Alright, goodnight my love."

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><p><em>So sorry I didn't update sooner. I've been sick all week. Review please!<em>


	16. Surprise Breakfast

**December 23, 1991**

Roger woke with the bright light burning his eyes. He groaned has his eyes readjusted, looking down and seeing that Mimi was no longer in his arms. He sighed and pulled the covers off of himself, and got out of bed. He put on a sweatshirt and some sweatpants and walked out into the loft.

When he walked in, the scent of bacon filled his nostrils. He saw Mimi cooking, and Mark sitting at the table drinking coffee. It was 10:30, early for everyone. Especially with how late they all stayed up. He walked up behind Mimi and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek.

"Good morning baby" He whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine. She turned her lead to see him.

"Good morning babe" She replied back, giving him a quick kiss before turning back to the food that was cooking on the hot plate.

"How did you sleep?" He asked.

"Good, how about you?" She responded, paying more attention to the bacon she was cooking.

"Good. What are you making?"

"Pancakes and eggs with bacon. Don't eat anything until everything is done." She told him as he eyed the plates of food next to them.

"Fine" He huffed. She smiled and turned her head, kissing him again. After a minute they were interrupted by the phone ringing then the answering machine picking up.

"Good morning bitches! I forgot my key and the building door is locked. I know you're all listening, if someone could throw down the key, it'd be great." Collins' voice echoed through the loft. Mark got up and got the key, walking over to the window, opening it and walking out onto the fire escape.

"We haven't done this in forever." Mark shouted down as he threw Collins the key. Collins chuckled and hung up the phone, walking to the door. Mark walked back into the loft, closing the window behind him. Roger was now sitting at the table and Mimi was turning off the hot plate and putting the bacon on a plate.

"Could someone help, please?" She asked as she grabbed the plate with a huge stack of pancakes on it. Roger and Mark got up to help her, bringing eggs, bacon, and coffee to the table. As they sat everything down at the table, they heard the door slide open.

"Good morning, bitches!" Collins called as he walked in.

"Morning Collins" Mimi said, giving him a hug with a friendly kiss on the cheek.

"Morning man" Roger told Collins as he himself sat down.

"A good morning it is, I brought you something I found wandering the block." Collins told them.

"I hope you're smart enough not to bring a diseased cat" Roger said.

"Do we look like diseased cats?" A man's voice said. Roger looked up to see his brother Ryan with his wife Lisa, who was pushing an empty stroller, and their son Sam in his arms.

"Ryan? What are you guys doing here so early?" Roger said as he got up, hugging them all.

"What? You don't want us here?" Ryan asked, jokingly.

"No, I just didn't expect you so early." He told him.

"Hey Mimi" Ryan said to her as she got up.

"Hey Ryan, Lisa, and Sammy" She said, exchanging hugs with everyone.

"Hey Mimi, taking good care of Roger?" Ryan asked her jokingly. Roger rolled his eyes while Mimi let out a small laugh.

"Yes. How about you sit down and eat breakfast with us?" She offered. They agreed and sat down at the metal table and joined the bohemian breakfast.

An hour later, everyone had finished eating and were sitting in talking. Ryan looked at the watch and seeing the time was 11:45.

"Dammit, I'm sorry guys. We have to go check on the restaurant. We'll see you tonight at the rehearsal dinner, okay?" He told them Lisa started to get Samuel ready to leave.

"Alright, see you tonight." Roger said as he and everyone else got up to escort them to the door.

"Bye Mimi" Ryan said to her as they shared a hug.

"Bye Ryan, bye Lisa" As she moved on from him to Lisa. Once they pulled away from the hug, Mimi kneeled down in front of the stroller.

"Bye Sammy, I'll see you tonight, okay?" She said to him with a smile. He looked at her.

"Bye Aunt Mimi" She smiled at him and kissed his cheek, then getting back up.

"Bye Mark and Collins. It's good to finally see you two again." Ryan said to them.

"Bye man, you know everyone is just a phone call away. We'll see you tonight." Collins told him as they shared a friendly hug. Once they were through, he moved on to Mark.

"Yeah, bye Ryan." Mark said, as they parted from each other.

"Bye Lisa." Roger said to Lisa as he hugged her.

"Goodbye Roger. See you tonight" She said as she pulled away from him. Roger looked down and waved a Sam.

"Bye Sam, see ya tonight little man."

"Bye uncle Roger" He said, waving back, Roger smiled and then turned back to his brother.

"Bye man, I'll see you later." He said to him as they shared a brotherly hug.

"Bye Rog, see you tonight." He replied back as they parted. Roger slid open the door for them and watch as they left, closing it once they were out of sight.

"I felt so weird in my pajamas in front of guests." Mimi said as she flopped down on the couch. Collins laughed as he sat down on the old chair next to the couch.

"But you sure weren't shy about eating in front of them" He said.

"I'm eating for two; I can eat all I want." She told him. He laughed just laughed again. Roger said on the arm of the couch next to Mimi's head.

"Did you take your medicine?" He asked her, she nodded.

"Yes, I did." She told him.

"Good." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. She smiled and sat up, making room for him to sit next to her. He moved down next to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest. She closed her eyes and took in his scent.

* * *

><p><em>This was just a filler episode, kind of boring but it'll get better. <em>


	17. The Beginning to A Long Night

**December 23, 1991 7:00PM**

"Pookie, which lipstick?" Maureen asked as she held up two different lipsticks in front of Joanne.

"The one on the left. Hurry up, Honeybear. We're going to be late." Joanne told her as she ran to the bathroom to finish her make up. Minutes later, Maureen came out, putting her heels on.

"Ready!" She exclaimed to Joanne as she through on her coat. Joanne opened and the door and Maureen followed her out, into the snowy New York streets.

"Roger honey! Are you ready?" Mimi called to her to-be husband who was still in their bedroom.

"Yeah! Just a minute!" He shouted back. There was a knock on the door, Mimi ran to open it. Waiting on the other side was Sarah.

"Oh hey Sarah, Mark should be out of his room in a minute. Come in." Mimi moved aside, letting her in. Sarah walked past her, wearing a coat over her navy blue dress with heels to match. Mimi shut the door, keeping the loft from getting colder than it already was.

"Mimi, you look great." Sarah complimented her. She was a more skin-tight, red, quarter sleeve dress with black heels. Mimi smiled at her.

"Thanks, you look really good from what I can see so far." Sarah laughed as Mark came out of his room.

"Sorry I took so long." He said to Mimi.

"It's alright, he's still getting ready anyways. Honey, are you almost ready?" Mimi first explained to Mark, then called to Roger.

"Yes, just one more second." He called back. She smiled and shook her head.

"Figures" Mark said with a roll of his eyes. He then noticed Sarah.

"Hey" He said to her, pulling her into a hug, then kissing her. She smiled as they pulled away.

"Hey yourself." She replied back.

"You look great." He complimented her; she turned a bright shade of red.

"You don't look too bad yourself." His face then turned a matching color to hers. Roger came running in.

"I'm ready." He said as he came to a halt.

"Oh honey, your tie." Mimi said to him as she started to fix his tie. He sighed and waited for her to finish. He and Mark were both wearing suits.

"Are we ready to go now?" He asked once Mimi was finish. They put one their coats and walked out of the loft, down the stairs to the car.

Once they got to the restaurant, Maureen, Joanne, and Collins were all already there. Maureen was wearing a dark green dress while Joanne was wearing a dark purple dress. Collins was wearing a suit.

"Thank god it's just you guys and not anyone else yet." Mimi said as they got settled in. She would've been embarrassed if anyone else got there before they did. They had a private party room upstairs in the restaurant.

"Hey, I thought this was my little Hermana, not a grown woman." Mimi looked behind her to see who was talking to her. It was Fernando. She smiled, turning and hugging her brother.

"Oh hermano, you look good." She told him.

"Not as good as you do. Hey, what happened to seeing each other before the wedding?"

"The wedding isn't until tomorrow" She reminded him, he laughed and her remark.

"Yes but this is a wedding event." He told her. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. At least we're here together." She told him. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Rosa and Jose sitting at the end of the table.

"Did you bring them?" She asked in a low voice, tilting her head towards them.

"Yeah, is it okay?"

"Yeah, I invited them so why wouldn't it be?"

"Good." He let out a breath of relieve. She laughed at her brother's worry at getting her mad. She hugged him again and then told him to sit down as more guests began to arrive.

"Mom, why?" Roger questioned as he saw his mother being wheeled in by Randy with Amanda pushing Tommy in his stroller and Vanessa beside her following them. Mimi approached them, standing next to Roger.

"What do you mean why? Honey I'm not going to miss this and the wedding tomorrow. I'll go back to the hospital after this and then come from there and go back again." She explained to him. She didn't want to miss her son's wedding events just to be stuck in a hospital room, alone. Behind them, Roger's father came in with a nurse next to him. Roger looked up and saw him, then drew his attention back to his mother.

"Mom, this is too much for you. You just had a heart attack." Roger told his mother. She just shook her head in disagreement.

"I'm staying. I have a nurse with me, I'm staying." Roger sighed, knowing he wouldn't get through to his mother. Mrs. Davis then drew her attention to Mimi.

"Mimi, you look beautiful." Mimi smiled at her. Mimi loved Roger's mother, as Roger's mother enjoyed Mimi just as much.

"Thank you Mrs. Davis. You look beautiful yourself." She told her.

"Katie, honey. Call me Katie." She smiled as Mimi bent down and hugged her. Mimi pulled away from her as Roger shook his father's hand.

"Dad." Roger said as he took his hand.

"Roger. Nice thing you've got going on here." He told him as the let go of each other's hands.

"Thanks dad." Mr. Davis nodded.

"This is Patricia, your mother's nurse for when she leaves the hospital, and she'll come home with her when she does." He told Roger as he introduced her. Roger shook her hand and they exchanged hellos.

"This is my fiancée, Mimi. Mimi this is Patricia, my mother's nurse." Roger told them as he introduced them to each other. Mimi smiled at her and shook her hand, saying hello. She put on a small smile and said hello back. Randy wheeled his mother to the table with Patricia and his father following. Amanda the kids stay put.

"Hey Mandy," Roger says to her, giving her a half hug as she keeps one hand on the stroller.

"Hey Roger, Hey Mimi." She said in return as she let's go of him and then moves to Mimi. She let's go of Mimi and looked down at a sleeping Tommy.

"I don't know why he's so tired. He took a nap earlier. He fell asleep in the car but we woke him once we got here but he fell asleep once we put him in the stroller." She explained just as Randy came back to them.

"Hey guys" He said to Roger and Mimi as he shared a hug with both of them.

"I tried to convince her to stay at the hospital for the night but she refused." He explained, talking about his mother.

"I know you tried." Roger said to him. Vanessa was hiding behind her father's leg. Randy looked down and picked up her.

"Remember Uncle Roger and Aunt Mimi?" Vanessa nodded, looking at them. The five year old stared at her uncle and aunt.

"Hey sweetie." Mimi said to her with a smile. Vanessa smiled and waved to her. Randy laughed.

"I see someone's not going to talk, but can she laugh?" Randy said as he began to tickle his daughter. She began to giggle and fidget. Roger watched, not saying a word while Mimi smiled at them. The four of them began to make their way to the table, letting other guest talk to Roger and Mimi. Mimi turned to Roger.

"Baby, what's wrong?" She asked, taking his hand in hers.

"Nothing." He told her.

"Are you sure?" She questioned. He nodded.

"I'm sure." He insisted.

"Okay" She said reluctantly, giving him a kiss. Collins came around, tapping Mimi's shoulder, breaking them apart.

"That's a very risky dress with your condition." Collins said, eyeing her skin-tight dress.

"Shh, no one has said anything. It's fine." She replied. He shrugged.

"Alright if you say so." With that, he walked away. She shrugged and gave Roger another kiss before letting go of him. Mimi looked at the table, noticing that Ryan and Lisa had already arrived, along with a lot of other people. She also noticed that the table was getting filled fast. She also noticed that Jose was sitting with his mother instead of with all of the other children.

"Hold on a second." She told Roger, walking away from him. He watched walk to the table from afar, not saying anything.

"Jose, why aren't you sitting with all the kids?" Mimi asked, bending down next to him.

"I don't know any of them." He admitted. Rosa looked and saw her sister talking to her son, she quickly looked back up and paid attention to whoever was speaking to her.

"Well I'll introduce everyone. Come on." She said, pulling out his chair. He hopped off his chair, taking her hand. She smiled and walked him to the kids table.

"Hey guys, this is Jose. Jose, this is Sam and Vanessa." She said as she introduced everyone to each other.

"The baby over at the table is Tommy, but he's only two and he's too tired to sit here. Why don't you sit her with Vanessa and Sam?" She suggested to Jose. He hesitantly nodded. She smiled and pulled out the chair for him. He sat down in it and she pushed him in.

"Okay, you all be good, okay?" She said to them. They all nodded, Mimi smiled and left them alone.

"Hi, I'm Sam. I want to be a firefighter when I grow up." Sam introduced himself to Jose.

"He doesn't care about what you want to me, dumby." Vanessa said, interrupting.

"I wasn't talking to you nessa." He said as he stuck his tongue at her.

"Jose, what do you like to do?" Vanessa asked him. Jose was extremely shy.

"I like to play piano." He said in a quiet voice.

"Doesn't that get boring?" Sam asked.

"Sammy you're sooo stupid!" Vanessa yelled at him.

"I'm stupid? Look at you, you're a dumby!" Jose sat in silence, watching the cousins fight.

An older woman walked in. She was on the heavier side, and was wearing a plum colored dress that had sleeves.

"Mama?" Mimi questioned, seeing the woman. The woman looked at her.

"María?" The woman questioned back. Mimi nodded.

"Hola mama" She said to her.

"Hola María. Qué bonito restaurante que eligió para la noche." _Hello Maria. What nice restaurant you chose for the night. _Mimi's mother said to her. Roger stood in silence, watching them.

"Y quién es este?" _And who's this? _She asked, looking at Roger.

"Mama, this is Roger, my fiancé, the man I'm going to marry. Roger, this is my mother." She introduced them to each other. He stuck out his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you finally." He said as she took his hand.

"The same to you." She replied with a smile, releasing his hand.

"Mama, why don't you go sit down? There's a seat in between Rosa and Fernando." She instructed her mother.

"Alright María." She said without a complaint. Mimi let out a sigh of relieve as she watched her mother walk to table. Roger wrapped his arm around her.

"She's not that bad." He told her.

"You don't even know." Mimi said under her breathe.

* * *

><p><em>Wow. I feel like this story is going by so fast. It's almost over. But it still has a few chapters left. If you can't remember Roger's family they're all introduced and described in the second chapter of Family Affair. <em>


	18. Rehearsal Dinner

**December 23, 1991 8:30PM**

"Sorry we're late." Rebecca said as she waltzed right into the room with Rachel and David following right behind her. Mimi laughed and hugged them all. Roger hugged his young sister, then hugged his twin sister, then turned to her boyfriend.

"Hello Roger." David said, sticking out his hand.

"Hey David." Roger replied, shaking his hand. David was nerves and wanted to impress his girlfriend's family. Hoping one day they'd be in the same place as Mimi and Roger, getting married. Roger let go of his hand and he and Mimi lead the three of them to the table.

Now everyone was sitting down while appetizers where being placed in front of them. Roger caught a glimpse of someone he'd rather not have seen. He took a double take to make sure it was true and it was. It was Benny sitting on the other side of the table. Roger glanced at Mimi, who was talking to Rachel who was sitting next to her about something. He tried his best to stay calm, taking a sip of his water. He looked back to Benny as he put his glass down, seeing he was talk to none other than Rosa. What a perfect scenario, the two most disliked people here are sitting and talking with each other. Roger decided to not pay attention to them, looking back to Mimi and pretending to be a part of a conversation.

"Honey, are you alright?" Mimi asked him quietly. She saw an uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He tried assured her.

"What is it baby?" She asked, know he was lying.

"It's just, that" He told her, nodding towards Benny and Rosa.

"Don't pay attention to them, okay?" She told him, he nodded, not wanting to upset her.

"Mark, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" Randy asked, eyeing the girl sitting next to Mark. Mark turned a slight shade of red.

"This is my girlfriend, Sarah" He told everyone, introducing her. She turned a slight shade of pink herself as she said hello to everyone one.

"Nice going, Cohen. I'm always amazed when you get a girl." Randy said to him.

"Play nice, kids." Amanda said jokingly, taking a sip of her wine.

Everyone was enjoying themselves. Talking, eating, having a good time. Now it was in between dinner and dessert.

Roger stood up with his glass in hand and Mimi by his side, also holding a glass. He tapped his glass to get everyone's attention. Everyone looked up to see what was going on.

"Good evening guys. We just wanted to thank you all for coming, and to individually thank some of you." He began.

"Thank you to my sister Rosa and her son Jose for coming from San Diego. Thank you to my brother Fernando who came from Texas. Thank you Maureen, for being an amazing Made of Honor. You might drive me and everyone else crazy sometimes but you've really helped me these past few months, you too Joanne." Everyone smiled and gave a small wave when Mimi called their name.

"Since all my flown in guest did not come tonight, I would like to thank Mark. You've been my best friend since grade school and have stuck with me through everything. I couldn't think of a better Best Man or best friend. Mimi and I would like to thank our parents. Her mother, Hilda. And my parents Robert and Katie. Especially my mother with her recent heart attack, it's amazing that she could even be here. Mom, I told you to take it easy and what did you do, you went on an hour drive to the city and brought a nurse with you and then called it 'taking it easy.'" Everyone erupted into laughter at Roger's remark about his mother. She smiled at him, a smile that always makes Roger feel bad about the pain he's caused her.

"Anyways. Mom, we hope you get better, and we love you all. Thank you all for coming." With that, everyone applauded as they sat down again.

Now everyone was eating dessert and drinking coffee. It was 10:30 already, and everyone was going to leave soon.

"Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom" Sam said as he tugged his father's pant leg.

"Okay." Ryan said, picking his son up, taking him the restroom.

A few minutes later, they came back from the restroom. Ryan put Samuel back at the kid's table and went and stood at the head of the table.

"Guys, I just passed by the door. It's snowing really bad and doesn't look like it's clearing any time soon." Ryan informed everyone.

"You're joking" Roger said, getting up to look out the window of the restaurant. Sure enough, it was snowing horribly hard. He swore under his breath as Mimi came up behind him.

"Honey, what are we going to do with everyone that isn't staying in the city?" She asked.

"I don't know. I'm trying to think." He asked as they walked back to the table.

"Okay, who doesn't have a place to stay?" Roger asked everyone.

"We don't" Randy said, referring to him, Amanda and the kids.

"Neither do we, nor does Rebecca." Rachel said on behave of David and Rebecca.

"Sweetie, I can't get back to Queens" Mimi's mother spoke up.

"Mom, Dad I know you two can't get back" Roger said to them as they stayed quiet. He sighed in frustration; he didn't know what to do with anyone. It was the day before Christmas Eve, which means it was impossible to get a hotel room already, having a storm made it worse.

"I have an extra bed in my room" Rosa spoke up, breaking everyone's thoughts. Mimi was shocked at her sister's kindness, but smiled at her gratefully for it.

"So do we" Ryan joined in.

"The couch in my room turns into a bed" Fernando added.

"Someone can crash at my place" Collins offered.

"Someone can squeeze in at mine and Maureen's with Mimi" Joanne offered as well. Mimi and Roger and all the people that need a place to stay were grateful for everyone's offer.

"I've got it. Randy and Amanda can go with Ryan and Lisa, Hilda can stay with Rosa, Rebecca can-" Roger began to direct everyone.

"Wait! I want to go with Mimi, Maureen, and Joanne" Rebecca interrupted.

"Alright, whatever. Mom and Dad, I'm going to try to get you guys and the nurse a hotel room just because of your problem mom, but if I can't we'll get you somewhere. Rachel and David can either stay with me, Mark and Sarah at the loft, at Collin's place, or at Fernando. Your pick. Sound good?" Roger continued to explain it to everyone nodded.

"I think we'll just stay with Collins" Rachel told him.

"Alright, so everything is set, right?" Everyone nodded.

"I'll ask the restaurant if I can use a phone to call the hotel." Ryan said, getting up. Roger ran his fingers through his long dirty blonde hair, letting out a great sigh.

"Everything will be alright." Mimi tried to assure him.

"Yeah, you can only hope." He replied. She rubbed his arm in comfort. Just then, Ryan came back to the table.

"Good news, mom and dad, I got you guys a suite at the hotel. And there's of course room for Patricia." He told them.

"Thank you, honey. See Roger, everything will be alright." Mrs. Davis said to them. Roger thought about it, maybe everything will be okay.

"Good job, son." Mr. Davis said to Ryan. Ryan nodded at his father.

"And on that note, I think it's time for us to get going. It's getting late." Randy said as he, Amanda, Ryan, and Lisa started to get up and get all the kids ready to go.

"Yeah, us too." Rosa said, referring to her, Jose, and her mother.

"I think we're all going to get going." Collins said as everyone else started to get ready to leave.

"I have to get home to Alison." Benny said as he approached Mimi.

"You guys made up? That's great Benny." Mimi said to him, as happy as she could. He nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't think she'll come tomorrow." He told her. She nodded.

"Alright, but I hope you still do." She said to him.

"I will, don't worry" He assured her. Mimi pulled him to a hug. He was taken aback at first, but then hugged her back.

"Bye Benny" She said to him.

"Bye Meems" He replied as they parted. Then, without saying anything else, he left. Mimi felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind.

"Should I be worried that you'll be stolen away from me at the last minute?" Roger whispered in her ear. Mimi shook her head with a smile, turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"No dear. I'm yours." She assured him.

"Good." He said, leaning down and kissing her.

"Don't let anyone steal you away from me when I'm not there tonight." She told him as their lips parted.

"I won't even dream of it." He replied.

"That's right you wouldn't" He laughed.

"I love you" He said to her.

"I love you too" She replied. They shared another kiss, then parted their separate ways.

* * *

><p><em>Ahhh. It's getting so close! You know the usual, review blahblahblah.<em>


	19. Cold Night

**December 23 11:30PM**

"Finally" Rebecca sighed as she flipped down onto the couch.

"Finally is right, it's freezing out there." Joanne said in agreement as she hung up everyone's coats.

"It is so good to be home." Maureen said was she walked into the bedroom to get changed.

"I'm changing in the office" Mimi announced as she made her way into Joanne's office.

"Alright" Joanne called back.

"I don't have anything to change into, nor do I have my dress for tomorrow." Rebecca said, looking down at herself and seeing that she was still in her dress.

"You can borrow something of mine." Maureen said as she entered the room again, now in her pajamas. "Pajamas are on the top self in the closet"

"Thanks" Rebecca said as she got up and went into Joanne and Maureen's room. Mimi entered the room again, now wearing pajamas, and sat on the couch next to Maureen.

"Make yourselves at home" Collins said as Rachel and David followed him in. They walked in and looked around the small, dirty, one bedroom apartment.

"It's nice Collins." Rachel said as sincere as she could. Collins just started to laugh.

"You're such a bad liar Rach. You and I both know this place is a dump." Rachel just smiled at him, as David kept to himself.

"Kids, time for bed!" Amanda told Sam and Vanessa of the kids. Tommy was already asleep in his crib They whined and begged to stay up a little longer.

"Nope, we have to wake up early for Uncle Roger and Aunt Mimi's wedding." Lisa told them.

"But mommy, just a little bit longer." Sam begged his mother, letting out a yawn. Lisa laughed.

"No, look you're so tired already. You don't want us to get your fathers involved in this, do you?" They groaned and made their way to the bathroom to brush their teeth.

"Jose can you get the remote for your abuela" Hilda asked her grandson. He nodded and handed her the remote for the tv.

"Thank you sweetie." She said as she turned on the TV as Rosa walked into the room.

"So, what did you think mama?" She asked her mother.

"What do you mean?" She replied, not looking away from the TV screen.

"Él, ¿qué piensas de él?" _Him, what did you think of him?_

"Quién? Roger? Buen chico. Mimi hizo bien con él." _Who? Roger? Nice boy. Mimi did good with him. _She replied to her daughter. Rosa let out a frustrated sigh, jealous of her sister relationship. All her relationships have ended in a fail.

"It's fucking freezing out there." Sarah commented as she, Mark, and Roger made their way up to the loft.

"Yeah well the loft is just a small step up." Roger told her as they arrived to the door. He pulled out his key and slid open the door.

"Shit" He said under his breath as they walked into the cold, dark loft.

"The power's out!" Mark exclaimed.

"Yeah, no kidding." Roger spat at him.

"That's it, I'm not standing this. Get all your clothes; we're going to my apartment." Sarah instructed them.

"Fine by me" Roger said as he went into his and Mimi's room to get his things.

"Here's the sleeping plan. Rebecca can sleep in my office on the air mattress, Maureen and I will sleep on the pull-out couch, and Mimi can sleep on our bed." Joanne instructed.

"We're going to sleep now?" Rebecca groaned.

"We have to be up by 9 the absolute latest." Joanne told her. All of the sudden, the phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Joanne answered the phone.

"Hey Joanne, is Mimi there?" Roger asked.

"Yeah, hold on." She told him. "Mimi, the phone is for you." Joanne told her. She got up and took the phone from Joanne.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." Roger said into the phone.

"Hey baby, what's wrong?" She asked, leaning against the wall.

"When we got to the loft, the power was out so now we're at Sarah's"

"That's awful. Did you call Benny?"

"Not yet"

"Why not?" She questioned.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with him. I just wanted to tell you so you don't freak if you tried to call the loft. The number for here is 555-3475" He told her.

"Alright honey." She replied as she scribbled it down on a piece of paper.

"I'll meet you at the altar tomorrow."

"I'll be the one in white." He chuckled.

"I love you." He said to her.

"I love you too"

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight" With that, Mimi hung up the phone.

"You alright, mom?" Randy asked his mother as he and his brother helped bring up their parents things.

"Yes honey. Thank you two for helping." She thanked her sons.

"It's no problem, mom." Ryan assured her. She flashed them a small, caring smile.

"Why does she have to stay with the lesbians and gold digger anyways?" Mr. Davis said as he came out of the bathroom.

"Robert! They're nice people, why would you say something so horrid about Mimi? She's a nice girl." Mrs. Davis snapped at her husband.

"I'm just saying, why does our daughter have to stay with them? She's only eighteen; they've probably poisoned her mind already. Come on, sweetheart. You know Roger and this girl don't really love nor care each other."

"Why would you even think that, Robert? That's horrible." Mrs. Davis was mad at her husband.

"Honey, please don't be so naive. He found this girl and thought 'hey she's infected too, might as well.' And then she went for him because she's a gold digger like I said." He explained to his wife.

"Dad, stop it. You know you're wrong and you're getting mom upset. You should see the way they live; I highly doubt Mimi's a gold digger. You should hear the way he talks about her, always saying she's the best thing that's happened to him. They love and care for each other so much. Just stop it." Ryan snapped at his father.

"I think it's time for us to go." Randy said as he took his brother's shoulder.

"Goodnight mom and dad."

* * *

><p><em>cece3457, I hope you caught it. <em>


	20. Doubtful Morning

**December 24, 1991 9:30AM**

Joanne walked into her bedroom where Mimi was sleeping. She approached her sleeping figure, putting her hands on her arm and gently shaking her.

"Mimi, it's time to wake up." Mimi groaned and tried to push Joanne's arm off of her. "Come on sweetie, your wedding is in a few hours." Joanne continued to shake her. Mimi groaned and finally turned over, opening her eyes a little.

"I'm getting married today." She mumbled. Joanne laughed.

"Yeah, you are. And it's time for you to get up." She told her as she left the room. Mimi sat up and looked around the room.

"Shit, I'm getting married today." She hopped out of bed and walked out of the bedroom. When she walked into the kitchen she saw Joanne cooking while Maureen was sitting at the table. Rebecca walked in next to her, looking just as tired as she did.

"Morning sleepy heads. You two slept longer than I did." Maureen greeted them when she noticed them both up.

"It's because I woke them up." Joanne pointed out as they sat down.

"Why do we have to be up so early anyways? It doesn't start until two and we don't have to get there until twelve." Rebecca whined, tired and in desperate need of a cup of coffee.

"So we can all be ready by then" Joanne told her as she placed a plate full of pancakes in the center of the table. Everyone began to help themselves.

As they were well into their breakfast, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it" Maureen announced as she got up and proceeded to the door. She opened the door to find Sarah, who was holding a hanging garment bag.

"Hey Sarah, come in." Maureen greeted her, stepping to the side for her to come in. "We're just eating breakfast" She informed her.

"Hey Maureen. Okay, Mark woke everyone up a little too early." Sarah told her as they made their way to the kitchen. Sarah saw a small table in the corner where everyone was sitting in the kitchen.

"Oh hey Sarah! You're here early." Joanne greeted her as entered the room.

"Hey Joanne, Rebecca, Mimi. I was just telling Maureen how Mark woke us all up a little too early because he thought we wouldn't get up." Sarah clued everyone in.

"I bet Roger didn't like that" Mimi commented as she shoved another piece of pancake into her mouth. Sarah laughed. "No, he really didn't. When I left they were fighting."

"I bet they were. Sit, my sister won't be here until we have to go probably." Mimi told her. Sarah nodded, sitting down in an empty chair, hanging the clothes on the back of the chair. All of the bridesmaids were coming over to Maureen and Joanne's so they would all go together. Maureen was the maid of honor; Joanne, Sarah, and Rosa were bridesmaids. Rosa and Mimi had their agreements but Mimi felt bad to not at least make her a bridesmaid. Mimi hadn't known Sarah much at all, but Roger had four guys, while Mimi only had three girls, so it really worked out for Sarah to be a bridesmaid.

"It is actually insane how you woke everyone up at seven in the morning" Roger complained for the millionth time that morning.

"If I didn't you wouldn't have woken up at all, and then you would've missed the wedding." Mark told him, rolling his eyes.

"I most definitely would not have. Mimi would never forgive me"

"Maybe it would've saved her the trouble." Mark murmured. Roger glared at him.

"What did you say?" He questioned him.

"Nothing. Now finish up, we have to get ready. Sarah already left for Maureen and Joanne's" Mark told him.

"They're probably still asleep" Roger said as he took a sip of his coffee.

"I don't think so. Joanne and I are on morning duty"

"Did you plan this?" Roger asked, putting down his cup.

"How else would everyone get up?" Roger rolled his eyes. His nerves were coming out as irritation and anger.

"Come on Roger, we're going to be late." Mark shouted to his best friend. He heard his grumbling from the other room.

"Give me a second, we're not going to be late" Roger shouted back. Mark looked at his watch and sighed.

"Oh yes we will, it's already twelve." Mark informed him. He heard Roger swear as he finally walked out of his temporary room at Sarah's.

"Maureen, do these shoes match?" Rebecca asked, comparing the shoes to the dress she was borrowing.

"Yes, they're fine. Now come on, pookie, Rosa, Sarah and Mimi are already in the car and they're going to get mad if we take any longer." Maureen told her, pushing her out of the door. "Alright, alright. Calm down, I'm going." Rebecca assured her as they made their way downstairs.

"Finally! It took you long enough. It's already 11:45" Joanne exclaimed as they entered the car.

"Calm down, pookie, everything will be fine" Maureen assured her. "Mimi, how are you holding up?" Maureen then asked her, looking at Mimi who had a lost look on her face.

"What? Oh, I'm fine." Mimi replied, turning to her and giving her a small smile.

"If you say so." Maureen doubted her. She could tell she was nervous.

**12:45PM**

"Look at all the pretty ladies in here" Collins commented as he walked into the girls' room. "And you Mimi, you look gorgeous." He approached Mimi, who was sitting down with her mother beside her. She smiled at him.

"Thank you, Collins." She was really starting to get nervous. Her mother put her hand on top of hers.

"María, don't be so nervous." She told her daughter. "You look so beautiful and I'm so proud of you, cariño, with everything you've done with your life." Mimi looked at her _mother._ Those were the words that she longed to hear her mother say all her life. She pulled her mother into a tight hug. Her mother wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"I love you, mama" She told her. Her mother stroked her hair gently. "I love you too, Mimi."

Rosa watched her sister and mother from afar. She never realized until now how much attention she had taken away from Mimi from their mother. She thought about maybe if she hadn't done this or that Mimi wouldn't have acted out and left later on.

"How's he doing?" Maureen asked Collins.

"Roger? Please. He is the biggest mess I have ever seen." Collins told her. She laughed.

"That reminds me, I should probably get back to the other room." He said loud enough for everyone to hear. Mimi got up, walking to Collins.

"Bye Collins" She said as they shared a hugged. "Good luck out there. Angel would've been so proud of you." He whispered into her ear. She smiled as he parted away from her.

"I can't do this." Roger said, pacing the room back and forth.

"Man, yes you can. Just don't fuck up. Calm down and sit down. It's not as scary as you think it is." Randy told his younger brother. They all looked up when they heard the door open.

"Boy, you need to sit your ass down." Collins said as he reentered the room. Roger said nothing, continuing to pace back and forth.

"He is thinking of every worst case scenario that could happen" Collins said in a low voice to Ryan and Randy. Randy rolled his eyes. "He'll be fine." He replied back.

* * *

><p><em>Ew, I don't like how this chapter ended. I kept moving different parts from here to the next chapter and it ended up making this one weird. Anyways, the next chapter is the last, I'm sad to say. But there will be an epilogue. <em>


	21. Wedding Bells

**December 24****th****, 1991 1:45PM **

"Boys it's- where's Mark?" Mr. Davis began as he came into the room.

"Setting up the camera" Ryan informed him.

"Well he needs to hurry up. It's already 1:40 we need to start getting this together and get ready to start." Just then, Mark pushed past Mr. Davis.

"Sorry, I'm here" He said looking at everyone.

"Yeah, alright. Boys- what's he doing?" He asked, referring to Roger who was pacing back and forth still.

"Freaking out more than Ryan did." Randy remarked. His father rolled his eyes. "You should've calmed down an hour ago." Mr. Davis told Roger.

"Dad, just give us another minute" Randy asked his father. He sighed and left, granting his son's wish.

"What's up with you Roger?" Randy asked as he put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I'm freaking out. What if I mess up? What if I fall? What if I'm not good enough for her? What if she runs away right now?" Roger rambled on about all the bad things that could happen to him.

"Roger, enough. You're nervous but for some reason when you're nervous you make up all this shit that doesn't make any sense. Now you and Mimi love each other and you're going to get married. Alright?" Collins said to him. Roger was finally at ease. Suddenly, the door opened again, it was Mr. Davis.

"Boys, it's time." Mr. Davis informed them.

"It's time" Ms. Marquez told her daughter and all of her bridesmaids.

"You'll do great, honey. Don't worry." Joanne told Mimi as they shared a finally hug.

"Thanks Jo." Joanne pulled away from her and gave her a small smile before leaving with Maureen, Sarah and Ms. Marquez.

"It's not as scary as it seems." Rosa began to tell her sister. Mimi turned around and looked at her. "Once you're up there, looking into the person you love's eyes, all of the worry and doubt stops. You realize that you really do love this person and aren't scared anymore." She continued. Mimi didn't say anything, Rosa began to make her way out, but before getting pulled back by Mimi, who then pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you" Mimi whispered into her ear. Rosa smiled and pulled away from her sister.

"You're welcome" And with that, Rosa left to join everyone else.

"Hermana, you look amazing" Fernando said to Mimi as they waited to walk down the aisle.

"Thank you, Fernando." He smiled at his little sister. He linked his arm with hers.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He chuckled.

Suddenly the doors in front of them opened, seeing everyone wanting for her arrival. She took a deep breath as she began to walk with her brother by her side. She looked straight ahead and saw Roger, who looked like he was taken aback. A huge smile spread across both of their faces as she arrived at the altar. Fernando let go of her arm and sat down next to his mother.

"You look beautiful." Roger whispered to her. Her cheeks turned a bright red as she smiled and him, then turning her attention to the priest.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together today to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony. We are here to celebrate their union and to honor their commitment to one another. Today, Roger Davis and Maria Marquez proclaim their love to the world and we rejoice with them. Is there anyone here who sees why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony? Let them speak now or forever hold their peace." The room was silent. After a moment, he continued. "Now take each other's hands." They turned to each other, Roger taking Mimi's hands in his.

"Roger, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day on so long as you both shall live?"

"I do" He said, looking into her eyes.

"And Maria, do you take this man to be thy wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day on so long as you both shall live?"

"I do" She said, locking eyes with Roger.

"May we have the rings please?" The rings were handed to the priest. He handed one to Roger.

"Repeat after me, with this ring, I thee wed."

"With this ring, I thee wed." He slid the ring onto Mimi's finger. Then the priest hand the other ring to Mimi.

"Now you repeat after me, with this ring, I thee wed."

"With this ring, I thee wed." She slid the ring onto Roger finger. They looked up and smiled at each other.

"Now by the power vested in me by the State of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Roger wrapped his arms around Mimi and gave her a long, passionate kiss. Everyone clapped and cheered as they let go of each other, smiling at everyone as they made their way back down the aisle with each other.

**6:30PM**

"May I present to you all, for the first time ever, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Davis!" The DJ announced as Roger and Mimi walked into the reception together. They smiled as everyone clapped, and then sharing a small kiss.

"Well I never thought I'd see the day Roger Davis got married." Mark began. It was later on in the night, speech time. "But here we are. Roger and I have been friends since elementary school in Scarsdale. He came over to me in the playground, kicked me in the face and took my toy. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship." The room erupted with laughter; he chuckled as he waited a moment for everyone to calm down. "But since then, he's been my best friend. We've done everything together. He's really the brother I never had. Even though he's a pain in the ass, I could never think of anyone else as a best friend. So here's to you, Roger and Mimi, on behave of myself and probably everyone else here, I wish you two the best." Mark was applauded as he sat back down.

"Thanks man, really, for everything you've done." Roger thanked his friend.

"What are friends for?" Roger chuckled at Mark's casual response. He knew Mark never liked to be credited for anything.

"You two look like a mess." Mark told Roger and Mimi, who were stuffing each other's faces. They laughed as Mark took a picture of them. "Lighten up Mark; I think Sarah wants to dance." Mimi said to him. He turned and saw Sarah sitting alone, mushing up the piece of cake that was on her plate. He left the couple, who were now kissing and still had cake all over their faces, and walked over to Sarah.

"May I have this dance?" He asked her as he put the camera down on the table. She looked up and smiled.

"Of course" She replied and taking his hand and following him to the dance floor.

Pieces of rice rained down on Mimi and Roger as they made their way out of the party, hearing everyone shouting "Goodbye! "Good luck!" "Congrats!" The couple entered the back of the car, waving to everyone one last time as the car began to drive away. They settled back down. Roger took Mimi's hand in his, looking at her. She turned to face him.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Nothing. I was just wondering how I got so lucky to be able to spend the rest of my life with someone like you." She smiled, giving into his ways. She leaned in and kissed him. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. After a few moments, their lips parted, and they just stared into each other's eyes.

"I love you" She told him in a low voice.

"I love you too, more than anything."

**_The End_**

* * *

><p><em>I can't believe it's over! I thank you all for reading and I hope you all are having a healthy and happy holiday. The epilogue will be up some time this week.<em>


	22. Epilogue: All About Us

_I would just like to say beforehand that the character Nathan will be referred to as both Nathan and Nate. _

* * *

><p><strong>February 24<strong>**th****, 1992**

"Honey, hurry up! We're going to be late." Mimi called to her husband. She picked up her shoes and sat down on the old couch. She began to put them on as Roger finally came out of their room.

"Finally, what took you so long?" She asked as she finished putting on her shoes and got up.

"I don't know, nervous." He admitted. She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. "It's not your doctor's appointment."

"Yes but it is our baby." She rolled her eyes, not amused with his dramatic behavior.

"Come on, we have to go before we're late." She told him as she let go of him. They put on their coats and left out into the cold New York weather.

Mimi sat down next to Roger, beginning to fill out the forms the secretary gave her. Roger was absently looking around the room, noticing the beige colored walls and navy carpet. He then looked down to Mimi who was now next to him, watching her as she simply filled out the forms.

After a moment, Mimi noticed that there was a pair of eyes staring at her. She looked up from the papers, seeing Roger looking at her.

"What is it?" She questioned. He shrugged.

"Nothing, just watching you." She shrugged it off, continuing filling out the forms.

"Mimi Davis?" Mimi and Roger looked up. A nurse holding a clipboard was standing in the doorway. They slowly got up, walking to the nurse. Roger took Mimi's hand in his as they walked to the nurse. Mimi flashed him a small smile.

Roger and Mimi walked up the stairs back up to the loft in silence. No communication, not physical contact, nothing. Roger slid open the door and walked in with Mimi following behind. Mark was sitting at the table when they got back. They began to remove their layers in silence.

"How was it?" Mark asked, looking up at his unusually quiet friends.

"Fine" They both replied in a bored, almost bitter, tone. Once all her things were hung up, Mimi began to walk towards her and Roger's room.

"I'm going to take a nap." She announced, disappearing into the room without waiting for a reply. Roger sighed, sitting down next to Mark at the metal table.

"What happened?" Mark asked him.

"Nothing important, do we have any beer?" Roger asked as he got up, avoiding the subject. He began to search around the kitchen for something to drink.

"Didn't answer my question." He finally a few bottles of beer at the back of the fridge. He grabbed one and sat back down.

"Twins" Roger simply said, taking a sip of his beer.

"What?"

"Twins. She's pregnant with twins. A boy and a girl. I totally flipped out once we left and we got into a fight." Roger told him. Mark looked at him with disbelief.

"Roger, you have to make up with her. This is your responsibility too." Mark told his friend. Roger just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever" And with that, the discussion was over.

Roger opened his eyes, which where now stinging from the sunlight. He rubbed them and then sat up on the couch he had slept on last night. He thought for a moment. Thinking of what had happened with Mimi. How she hadn't spoken to him since. He got up off the couch, walking into the kitchen. Mark was sitting at the table, drinking coffee and reading a copy of The Village Voice. Roger poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down next to him.

"Mimi's up." Mark told him after minutes of sitting in silence. Roger didn't respond. Instead, he just continued to stare out into space. Mark just drew his attention back to the newspaper.

When Mimi walked into the room, Roger was sitting on the couch, strumming random chords on his guitar. She sat down at the other end of the couch, hoping he would say something to her. An apology maybe.

Instead Roger continued on, as if she wasn't there. She watched him for several minutes. His strumming and humming ringing through her ears.

"Are you just going to keep pretending I'm not her?" Mimi finally spoke up. He stopped all the noise, but still said nothing.

"Goddammit Roger! You're such a fucking child. When you have a problem with someone you have to work it out. You can't just sit there a moop around about it. Grow the fuck up." He sat there as she screamed at him. Once she was finally done, he looked at her, seeing tears escaping her eyes and rolling down her cheek.

"I just need to know that you're in this with me." He took his hands in hers. He couldn't stand seeing her so upset. He knew that it was partly him ignoring her, and partly her crazy hormones.

"I am" He assured her. He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her as she continued to cry.

**August 7****th****, 1992 **

"10 toes and 10 fingers on each" Roger said as he entered the waiting room. Everyone sprang up in excitement, all their mouths running a mile a minute. "How are they? How are you? What's their names? How's Mimi? Congratulations!"

"Everyone shut up!" He yelled. Everyone quickly quieted down. "I'm fine, Mimi's fine but tired, the babies are fine, health. Linda Rose and Nathan Angelo." Everyone gave him tired smiles and small cheers. It was 3:08 in the morning and everyone was tired.

"Can we see them?" Maureen asked. Roger nodded, leading the gang to Mimi's room. When they got there, they saw an exhausted Mimi saying in bed with one baby in arm, smiling down at them as they stayed surprisingly quiet. When everyone arrived at the door she smiled at them and told them to be quiet because Nathan was sleeping. They all filled in the room around her bed as she carefully handed Linda to Roger. Her big brown eyes stared at Roger curiously. He smiled down at his daughter, rocking her gently. Maureen stood next to him and whispered. "Can I hold her?"

"Yeah, but be careful Mo, she's not a toy." He told her as he carefully handed her over. Maureen huffed. "I think I should be the one saying that to you." He rolled his eyes at her, Collins chuckled as he watched from afar.

"Hey Meems, how you doing?" Collins asked Mimi as he said down in the chair next to her.

"Alright, tired. Really tired." She replied in whisper, not wanting to wake her son. "Want to hold him?" She offered Collins. He was hesitant.

"I don't know, I don't want to wake him.." He trailed off.

"No, it's alright, just be careful." She told him as she slowly handed her son over to Collins, who took him with extra care.

"She's so adorable." Maureen gushed, looking down at Linda and smiling. "Pookie, we should get a baby." She said, looking at Joanne. Joanne quickly shook her head as everyone let out quiet chuckles.

"I don't think so, honeybear. Not right now." Maureen put on one of her world famous pouts but Joanne refused. Maureen looked down at Linda again and drew her attention back at her.

"Meems, he looks just like you. Except for the skin tone, can't tell about the eyes." Collins remarked in a whisper. Mimi smiled and looked at her son, who was still sleeping soundly with all the noise going on around him. The little brown hairs on his head were the same color as Mimi's hair.

"Hey Mimi, how're you feeling?" Sarah asked as she sat down on the other side of Mimi.

"Tired" Mimi replied. Sarah laughed.

"I can imagine." Mimi smiled at her. She'd grown close to her the past few months.

"Mark, honey, I think we should get going. I'm getting tired. We'll come back tomorrow" Sarah said to her boyfriend, who was talking to Roger in the corner.

"Yeah, it's almost four." Mark replied as she began to get up and get ready to leave.

"I think we should get going too." Joanne said. Maureen handed Linda back to Roger. Collins motioned to Mimi to take Nathan away. He carefully handed the sleeping baby back to his mother. Everyone said their goodbyes to Mimi, Roger, and twins and left.

"Honey, could you lay him down? I'm really tired." Mimi asked her husband. He nodded. "Of course" He first laid Linda down and then processed to take Nathan out of Mimi's arms. He laid him down in the hospital crib next to Linda. He then went back to Mimi, leaning down and kissing her forehead.

"Goodnight, my love" He whispered into her ear.

"Zoom in on the new family walking into the loft. It's Linda and Nate's first day home and boy are they not in the hospital anymore." Mark narrated as Mimi and Roger walked into the loft. A couple of days have passed and Mimi and Linda and Nathan were finally able to get home.

"Mark get it out of my face." Mimi told him as she put Linda's carrier down on the table next to where Roger put down Nathan's. Mark slightly pulled the camera away from her, but continued to film.

"A very up tight Mimi is in view. Say hi to the camera." He continued to narrate.

"It's hot as hell." Mimi complained as she flopped down on the couch while Roger continued to bring in her stuff.

"You were spoiled with the AC at the hospital, welcome back to the loft." Mark said to her from behind the camera. She groaned, settling into the couch. Her peace was quickly shattered in a second by a cry coming from the other side of the room. Mimi quickly sprung up, running over to her babies. She carefully picked up Nate and gently rocked him.

"Shh baby, mommy's here" she told her son as she gently rocked him back and forth. After a few minutes he began to slowly calm down. She smiled down at him and kissed the top of his head, placing him back in his carrier. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind, she turned to see who it was.

"Finally got all the gifts and balloons inside," Roger informed her. She smiled and leaned up, giving him a small kiss.

"Thank you, honey,"

"Anything for you." She rolled her eyes at his cliché response.

"Focus in on new parents Roger and Mimi, who are ignoring the fact that their children are still on the kitchen table." Mark narrated, filming the couple's moment.

"Mark, if you don't get the camera out of my face right now-" Roger began, Mark quickly walked away from them. He focused his attention on the twins.

"Here's Linda and Nathan, it's their first day home, and as we can see, Nate is already making himself at home," He narrated, referring to the fact that Nathan had fallen asleep. "Miss Linda Davis, care to say anything to the camera?" Mark asked her, zooming in on her face. The infant just stared at him with wonder. He laughed a zoomed out just as Mimi came over and picked her up out of her carrier.

"Hey baby, is Uncle Mark already bothering you with his camera?" She asked the newborn in a sappy voice as she picked her up. Linda just stared at her mother and Mimi laughed, holding the baby close to her.

"You know I'm right here, right?" Mark commented. Mimi rolled her eyes. "Yes Mark, I have noticed you haven't left yet." Now it was his turn to roll his eyes, Mimi laughed again.

"Alright kids, that's enough," Roger interjected.

"Honey, could you please take Nate into their room and put him in his crib, please?" Roger nodded and said yes, picking up his son's carrier and bringing it into his room, coming out again a few minutes later.

"He's sound asleep," Roger assured her as he sat down next to Mimi, who was still holding Linda, on the couch. Mark had finally put his camera away and went into his room.

"Good, I'm afraid it won't be like that for much longer." Mimi replied tiredly.

"Baby, let me take her," He offered. She looked over at him hesitantly, then finally handed her over.

"Go rest" He told her, taking his daughter into his arms. She began to get up.

"Alright, I love you," She bent down and gave him a quick kiss.

"I love you too" He replied as she left to their room.

**September 15****th****, 1993**

"Nathan, would you please eat something?" Roger begged, sitting in front of his highchair, trying to feed the one year old. Nate just giggled. "Oh, you think it's funny?" Nathan giggled even more. Roger couldn't help but smile.

"I sure think it's funny." Mark said from behind his camera. Roger and Nathan both turned to see Mimi, Sarah, and Mark, who was filming, watching the scene before them. Nathan turned to see his father's reaction.

"Oh yeah, it's so funny," Mimi laughed as she watched her husband's failed attempt at trying to feed their sons.

"Honey, do you want me to do it?" She offered. He shook his head. "No, I can do it," He turned back to Nathan. "Nate, open up for the train" Nate shook his head, disgusted at the pea baby food. Roger let out a frustrated sigh, while Nathan continued to giggle.

"Baby-"

"No Mimi, I can do it," He interrupted her before she could say anything. He then turned his attention back to his son.

"Nathan, you need to eat. Now open up." Roger told him, putting the spoon near his mouth. Nathan looked at it and hesitantly opened up his mouth. Roger feed him the baby food to him, watching him make faces at the taste.

"Good job, buddy," Roger said to him as he got up to throw the small container out. "See, I told you all I could do it," He turned to face everyone only to see Mimi and Sarah were now watching TV and Mark was still filming.

"Nathan, how do you feel about your feeding?" Mark asked Nathan. Nathan just looked at the camera and started giggling again. Mark smiled and then continued to speak.

"Looks like he had a torturous experience, really awful," Roger rolled his eyes as he picked Nathan up and went over to the couch, sitting down next to Mimi.

"Hey, when does Linda come home?" Mark asked, sitting next to Sarah.

"Whenever Maureen brings her back," Mimi replied.

"Why does Maureen have to use our daughter as an experiment?" Roger asked Mimi. She began to laugh.

"Why is she even with Maureen?" Sarah asked, confused as to what they were talking about.

"Maureen wants to prove to Joanne that she can take care of a baby, so she asked if she could 'borrow' Linda for the day." Mimi explained to her. Sarah laughed. "So you actually let her?" Mimi nodded. "She'll never learn that it's hard until she experiences it," Sarah just nodded. After that, everyone sat there quietly for a while.

Everyone's thoughts were shattered when Nathan began to cry, Roger looked down at his son and began rocking in gently.

"Hey Nate, what's wrong?" Roger asked, knowing he won't get a response back.

"Roger, let me take him," Mimi offered. Roger nodded and handed him over to Mimi, who began to rock him gently, whispering soothing words to him. After a while he finally calmed down. She smiled down at him and he giggled once again. "dada" he said, reaching for Roger.

"You want daddy?" She asked. He just continued to reach for his father. Mimi handed Nathan over to Roger, who took him in his arms.

"Hey Nate" Roger said as he took him in his arms. Nathan frowned and clang to his father.

"What's wrong?" Roger asked him, concerned. Nathan just continued to have an upset look on his face, beginning to cry.

"Shhh Nathan, it's okay," Roger held him close, soothing him as he continued to cry. Mimi watched, waiting for Roger to ask for her help. But he didn't, and after a few minutes he calmed down a little.

"Better baby?" Mimi asked her son, rubbing his back as he stayed in Roger's arms. Suddenly he began to cough, ending up emptying his stomach onto Roger's shirt.

"Nathan!" Roger exclaimed, holding him away from him. Nathan giggled, becoming a happy baby once again. Mark and Sarah laughed as Mimi took Nathan away from Roger, trying her best not to laugh herself.

"Honey, he didn't mean it," Mimi told him as Roger began to leave to their room angrily.

"Yes but now I'm covered in throw up." He called back from inside the room.

She laughed, holding Nathan close to her.

**August 7****th****, 1997**

"-Happy birthday to you," Everyone finished as Nathan and Linda blew out the candles on their cake. Everyone clapped and cheered when all the candles were blown out. They were celebrating the twins' fifth birthday at Life, all the bohemians, Roger's family, and Mimi's mother.

One of the waiters cut the cake for them and everyone began to eat.

"Katie, are you and Robert coming back to the loft?" Mimi asked Roger's mother. Roger gave Mimi and look but she ignored it.

"We'd love to, right Robert?" Mrs. Davis eyed her husband who had been quiet the majority of the evening.

"I don't know Katie. It's getting late and I have a lot to do tomorrow," Robert replied, trying to think of an excuse.

"Nonsense. We'll come Mimi." Mimi and Katie exchanged small smiles between each other as their husbands stared daggers at them.

"Oh, honey what is it?" Mimi asked her daughter curiously as she opened another present. They were all back at the loft, watching the twins open presents.

"it's a new Barbie!" She exclaimed.

"Who gave it to you?" Mimi continued to ask.

"Abuela did," She told her.

"And what do you say to abuela?"

"Thank you" Linda said to her grandmother, turning to her.

"You're welcome, cariño." Hilda replied, smiling at her.

"Four new hot wheels!" Nathan exclaimed once he was finished tearing off the wrapping paper. "Thank you Uncle Randy and Aunt Amanda," He turned to them.

"You're welcome, kiddo." Randy responded.

"Here kids, these are from Grandpa and me," Mrs. Davis told her grandchildren, handing them both envelopes. They began ripping open the envelopes, revealing cards inside them.

"We figured you guys can go and pick out your own toys." She explained as they opened them.

"Whoa! I got a hundred dollars!" Nathan exclaimed.

"Me too!" Linda added.

"Thank you grandma and grandpa," The both thanked them. "You're welcome sweethearts. You should give the money to your mother so you don't lose it." Mrs. Davis explained to them. Roger looked at his parents, stunned that they gave so much money.

"Goodbye, see you soon!" Mimi called after the last of the family to leave. She slid the door shut behind them.

"Thank god that's over," She said as she flopped down on the couch. Collins laughed, sitting next to her feet.

"Exhausting?" He asked.

"To say the least," She responded. He chuckled, watching the twins play with their new toys.

**December 31****st****, 1999**

"Roger get in here, the ball is going to drop soon!" Mimi shouted to her husband, who was in the bathroom.

"In a minute!" He shouted back. He came back out and sat down next Mimi, who was sitting next to Linda and Nathan. The whole group was there. Collins, Joanne and Maureen, with their new daughter, Lauren, who they adopted the year before when she was a year old, Mark, and Sarah. All of them were there to celebrate the beginning of a new millennium together, with Mark of course filming it.

"…Five, four, three, two, one!" Once the countdown was over, all the couples had their lips attached to their significant other's. Once that was done, they all exchanged hugs as Dick Clark made a speech about the significance of the new year, the new decade, the new century, and the new millennium.

"Can you believe it's been ten years since we were all standing outside of the Wiz, right outside of Time Square, watching the ball drop on the TVs?" Mark said, sparking the memory for everyone.

"I can't believe it's been ten years." Roger replied in disbelief. Time was going by so quickly for them, but he didn't think it was that quickly.

"Hey Mark, do you still have the video from that night?" Collins asked him curiously.

"I just might, hold on." He replied, getting up to go look for it.

After about ten minutes, Mark came back out to the loft where everyone was sitting with a VHS tape in his hands.

"I found it," Mark replied, holding the tape up. "Well are you just going to stand there, or are you going to put it on?" Mimi pushed him to put it on. She was eager to see the old video.

"Alright, alright. God, calm down." Mark said as he pushed the tape into the VCR while Mimi rolled her eyes. He pressed play and sat back down next to Sarah. Suddenly an image of Mimi, Roger, Collins, Angel, Maureen, and Joanne came on the screen. It was incredibly loud as they were counting down from ten.

"Mommy, who's that lady next to Collins?" Nathan asked, she looked down at him. "That's our old friend, Angel. Remember, I've told you stories about her." She explained to him, his green eyes filled with wonder.

"Ooooh, she's pretty. She's in heaven now, right?"

"Isn't she? Yeah, she would've loved to meet you," She continued to tell her son. He just nodded and continued to watch the video. Collins smiled as he heard the conversation going on. To know that Mimi never let Angel's memory die meant a lot to him.

"Mimi, Mimi give me your New Year's resolution." Mark screamed to her from behind the camera, over all the noise.

"Nice pants Mimi. Why don't you wear stuff like that more often?" Maureen commented. Mimi rolled her eyes as there were slight chuckles around the room.

"Because I could still wear that now," She replied.

"I think you could," Roger joined in. She whacked him playfully. The conversation was interrupted by Mark.

"Roger's about to do an inappropriate move for the kiddies." He warned. Mimi quickly covered both of the twins' eyes as Roger gave the camera the finger.

"Hey, you deserved it." Roger shot back him. Mark rolled his eyes.

"Nice suit Maureen." Mimi now commented.

"Damn right it is!" Maureen replied back. Everyone began to laugh at her enthusiasm.

"You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville out of the girl." Mark added in.

"You know I looked good, Marky." Mark laughed and continued to watch.

"Come on you're going to break it!" An upset Mark shouted.

"Happy New Year Mark!" Maureen teased from behind the camera.

"Look this is not my barmitzh, give it back to me." Maureen continued to run down the street with the camera, when suddenly everything went black and it was over.

"After that she dropped it." Mark told everyone. There were small chuckles around the room for a moment, but then it went silent again. No one knew what to say now. Roger looked over at Mimi, seeing she was holding Linda and Nathan close, with tears streaming down her face.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He asked, wiping some of her tears away. Everyone looked over at the crying Mimi.

"It's nothing, it's just time is going by so fast." She held the kids tighter, as if it would stop them from growing up.

"Honey, why don't you let the kids get ready for bed?" He told her, knowing the kids were probably freaked out by their mother's sudden change in mood and that they were tired. She nodded, kissing them both on the cheek and told them she loved them as they walked away.

"Rog, maybe you should-" Collins began.

"Yeah, I know. I was just going to." Roger interrupted him midsentence. Collins nodded.

"Mimi, baby, let's go in our room for a minute." He told her. She nodded, taking his hand as he led her into their room.

"Meems, what is it?" He asked as he sat down next to her on the bed, wiping away more of the tears that rolled down her cheek.

"It's just, I feel myself running out of time. I'm 29 and that's when most people are just starting their lives, and mine is already starting to end. I can't take the fact that I know I won't see my kids graduate High School and College, and get married, and see my grandkids. It kills me so much." She finally broke down into sobs. Roger slowly pulled her into a soothing embrace. He felt the same pain as she did, but hers was more real than his. She was running out of time quicker than he was.

**May 21****st****, 2000**

Mark shut the door behind him and Sarah, before grabbing her hand and walking down the street. It was already 6:30 and getting dark, but that didn't matter.

"Are you alright?" He asked as they came to a stop, waiting to cross the street.

"I'm fine." She tried to assure him, but she looked like she was in a daze. He just nodded, not wanting to carry on the subject.

The host rolled his eyes as they walked into the Life Café. They settled at a table in the back, sitting across from each other. Mark was getting more and more nervous every minute they sat there, the silence wasn't a help to the situation.

"Mark, there's something I need to tell you," Sarah began to say, taking his hand across the table, as they were just finishing up their food.

"What is it?" He asked, gripping her hand. She took a deep breath.

"Well you see, I got a big offer, a space where I can own my own bakery, and I took it." She told him. He smiled, but her facial expression stayed the same.

"That's great Sarah! What's wrong with that?" He questioned.

"Well, I have two space options. One is in LA, and the other is in DC…" She explained, trailing off at the end. His face fell and he slowly pulled his hand away.

"Oh" He responded quietly, looking down at his lap.

"Mark, I don't have to do it. It's still early enough to-"

"No," He cut her off. "This is your dream. You've wanted this is your whole life. I would take it if I were you. You deserve it." She looked up at him, seeing the hurt in his eyes.

"Alright," She replied. The rest of the night out was quiet. The small box in Mark's pocket now seemed to weigh ten-hundred pounds.

**November 13****th****, 2001**

"Hey honey," Mimi greeted Roger as he walked in. He looked up when he heard her voice.

"Oh, hey Meems," He replied in a tired voice, putting his guitar case down on the floor. He walked over to the old metal table that they still had and sat down, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hands. Mimi watched him from her spot in the kitchen. She could tell something was wrong. He just came home from work. He was now a guitar teacher and has been for three years.

"Roger, what's wrong?" She asked as she sat down next to him, placing a hand on his back. He looked up, the concerned look on her face made him feel even worse. She thought it was something about him.

"Did you check the voicemail?" He asked back. She looked at him with a confused look on her face, her pale face. "No, what does the voicemail have to do with this?" He let out a deep, long sigh. He'd been thinking of a way to tell her all day.

"Baby, you don't look good," He commented, trying to get what was going on off her mind for a minute.

"I'm fine, just tell me." She lied. She knew she was looking pale, besides that she had not shown her other pains to anyone else.

"Where are the kids?"

"They're at Joanne and Maureen's for the rest of the night. Roger, just tell me." She was becoming impatient.

"Mimi," He began, taking her free hand. "We got a call today, it's still on the answering machine," She looked at him slightly confused, this was all about a phone call?

"Yes, and?"

"It was from the doctor, for you." She closed her eyes, gripping his hand tightly, taking deep breaths.

"Tell me what it said; I'd rather hear whatever it is from you." She told him in a calm voice.

"Your T-cells are getting low. Mimi, baby, you're not okay. And you need to stop pretending you are. Please let people help you." He watched as tears began to roll down her cheek as she nodded. He wrapped her up in his arms and she began to let out a loud sob. He rubbed her back comfortingly while whispering soothing words in her ear.

**February 4****th****, 2002**

"Happy Birthday!" The group of bohemians that were all cramped in a tiny room exclaimed. Mimi gave everyone a weak, grateful smile from her spot on the bed. She exchanged quiet thank you's as they all hugged her. Linda and Nathan just sat in the chairs that were next to the bed, pushed against the window with blank expressions on their faces.

"Nate," Nathan looked up to see Collins hand shoving a piece of cake in his face.

"Oh, thanks." He replied, taking the plate out of his hand.

"Happy Birthday, Hermana," Fernando said to his sister as he leaned over and hugged her. She hugged back, as tight as her weak body would let her.

"Thank you, Hermano," She replied as he let go of her. He looked down at her pale face. "You look good Hermana." She looked at him like he was losing his mind.

"Don't lie to me, Fernando," He just took her hand and gave her a smile.

"I never would, Hermana." She smiled and squeezed his hand.

"How are you feeling baby?" Roger asked his wife. Everyone, even the kids, had gone home. Mark took them with him. It was just the two of them now.

"Alright," She replied, their hands locked together. An almost eerie silence filled the room as they sat there.

"I'm 32 years old." Mimi broke the silence. Roger looked over at her, rubbing his thumb against her knuckle.

"Yes, you are," She sighed, squeezing his hand slightly.

"I never would've thought I'd make it this fair." She admitted. He knew that already though, everyone thought the same thing.

"But you did Meems, you did," She looked at him with a broken smile on her face. He brushed some strands of hair that were in her face. She grabbed his hand as it touched her face, replacing it on her chest, over her heart. They sat there with their hands on her chest.

"Please don't ever forget me," She begged, breaking the silence once again. He looked her in eyes.

"I couldn't even if I tried."

**July 15****th****, 2002 **

Mimi lied in the small hospital bed, paler and thinner than ever. She was attached to more machines and IVs. And she was asleep more of the time than awake.

"Hey honey," She greeted her husband in a weak, scratchy voice as he walked into the room. Roger smiled at her as he pulled a chair right up next to her bed, taking her thin, cold hand in his.

"Hey baby," He replied, leaning over and giving her a small kiss. She flashed him a small smile, showing her appreciation.

"Where are the kids?" She asked.

"They should be here in a minute. They went with Mark." He answered. She nodded as best as she could, showing she understood.

"Hey mom," Linda greeted her mother. Mimi and Roger looked up to see Linda, Nathan, and Mark walking in. Linda grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the other side of Mimi. She sat down, resting her head on the side of the bed. Mimi began to slowly run her fingers through her dirty blonde curls. Nathan took the seat behind Roger, sitting there silently, while Mark stood off the side.

"You're getting so big chica." Linda closed her eyes, taking in her mother's presence. Nathan sat there quietly, watching the scene before him.

"Linda, how about we get something to eat downstairs with Uncle Mark?" Roger suggested to his daughter.

"Okay," She replied, getting up and following the two men out the door. Mimi had a small smile on her face as she watched them leave. She then turned to Nathan, who was still sitting quietly by himself.

"Nate, why don't come sit here with me?" He slowly got up, approaching Mimi, and sitting down in the chair Roger was just sitting in. She took his hand in hers, he looked down. They stayed like that for several minutes.

"Don't be sad, hijo," Mimi told him, breaking the silence. He looked up at her.

"You know I love you, and I'll always be there with you." Tears began to threaten to spill out of his eyes as he sat there, not saying a word. Mimi noticed. "Come here, honey." She told him, letting go of his hand and opening up her arms. He climbed up onto the bed, lying down in her arms. She held him close to her as he began to cry, rubbing his back soothingly.

"Shhh baby, it'll be okay." She whispered to him as he continued to cry.

Twenty minutes later, Mark, Roger, and Linda came back to find a sleeping Mimi and Nathan lying in bed.

"Mark, why don't you go take Linda home?" Roger suggested in a whisper. It was already 9:30 and she was getting tired anyways.

"Alright," Mark agreed.

"Bye daddy," She wrapped her arms around her father's tall figure. Roger bent down and picked her up, wrapping his arms around her.

"Bye sweetie, Love you."

"I love you too, daddy. Tell mommy I said bye." He nodded. "I will." He then put her down and she stood next to Mark, ready to leave.

"Bye man," Roger said to Mark as they exchanged a brotherly hug. "Bye Rog, see you later." Mark replied as they parted.

"Be good for Uncle Mark, okay?" Roger instructed Linda. Linda nodded.

"I will be." She assured him. She took Mark's hand and they left.

Roger sat down in the same seat he was sitting in before, watching the two of them sleep.

The next morning Mimi felt something heavy on top of her. She opened her eyes to see Nathan still lying asleep on top of her. She looked over and saw Roger standing in the corner, looking out the window while talking on the phone. Then she noticed Linda sleeping in a chair near Roger. Her eyes were burning from all the light in the room.

"Roger" She choked out in a low, scratchy voice. His head whipped around to see her staring at him.

"Ma, I'll call you back later." He quickly hung up the phone, rushing to Mimi's side.

"What is it?" He questioned worriedly, bent down next to her.

"The lights, it's too bright," She told him weakly. He nodded and sprang up, closing all the blinds and shutting off all the lights except for the lamp that's surrounded by cards and flowers, next to the bed.

"Better?" He asked as sat down in the chair next to the bed. She nodded.

"Yes, you all stayed all night?"

"No, only Nathan and I. Linda went home with Mark but he dropped her off earlier on his way to work and she fell asleep again. She probably made him stay up all night playing a game or watching a movie." She started to laugh, which quickly turned into a cough. He handed her a glass of water. She declined as she calmed down.

"I'm alright," She tried to assure him. He slowly put the water down. Nathan began to toss and turn in her arms before he opened his eyes.

"Morning honey," She said to him as he fidgeted out of her arms and next to her.

"Good morning." He replied in a tired voice.

"Morning buddy," Roger said to him.

"Morning dad, I'm hungry." Mimi and Roger both laughed. "How about I take you and Linda down the street to the diner for breakfast when she wakes up?" Roger suggested.

"Okay," Nathan replied.

Later on that day, Mimi was lying in bed with Linda and Nathan lying with her, Roger pulled up next to the bed.

"Mommy, when are you going to come home?" Linda asked. Mimi and Roger's heads both shot up, looking at her.

"Linda, we talked about this." Roger reminded her in a stern voice.

"I just wanted to know," Linda was confused as to way she couldn't ask. It was an easy question.

"I'm not sure, baby." Mimi told her as she brushed the hair out of Linda's face with her shaky, frail hands. Linda didn't seem satisfied with that answered, but stayed quiet. Just then, the nurse walked in.

"Hello Mrs. Davis, how are you feeling?" She asked Mimi in a kind voice.

"I'm alright," Mimi replied in her scratchy voice. The nurse smiled at her than turned to Roger. "Mr. Davis, could I speak to you outside for a moment?" Roger nodded and got up, following her out. Collins walked in just as they were walking out.

"Hey Meems, hey little people." He greeted them, taking Roger's seat.

"Hey Uncle Collins," Nathan and Linda both said to him.

"Hey Collins," Mimi replied. Collins still wasn't used to the harshness of her voice, but he smiled at her.

"How're you feeling?" He asked, taking her frail hand in his large one. She let out a sigh.

"Okay," He nodded, knowing she was lying, but didn't say anything.

They suddenly heard yelling outside. Mimi closed her eyes tightly, taking a deep breath and sinking into the pillow. Collins looked down.

"Collins, why don't you take Linda and Nate downstairs to the cafeteria?" Mimi suggested. Collins nodded, getting up.

"Alright," He replied, just as Roger came storming back into the room. He plopped back down on the chair, throwing his head in his hands. He began to cry for the first time ever during this whole ordeal. Collins quickly took the kids out of the room.

Mimi sat there and watched him. She felt useless knowing she couldn't do anything. It made her feel even worse that it was her fault.

He looked up at her, his face all red and his eyes all puffy. They locked eyes, both of them aware of what that outburst meant. He grabbed her hand and held it close to him, sitting like this for minutes.

"Hold me, please." Mimi broke the silence.

"What?"

"Lay with me here and hold me, please. You haven't held me like that in months, please." He nodded, not saying anything as she moved over to make room. He laid down beside her, wrapping his arms around her. She felt so small and frail in his arms, but she felt secure there.

"Remember what I said on my birthday? About remembering me?" Mimi asked. She felt him nod against her shoulder and mutter "yes" in her ear.

"Please remember that. Please don't ever forget about me." You could hear how she was choking up in her voice.

"I could never forget you, no matter how hard I tried." He whispered into her ear as hot tears began to roll down her cheek.

**July 17****th****, 2002**

It happened in the middle of the night, at around 4AM. She kissed her children goodbye earlier that night, as well as her friends. She begged the doctor to let her fall asleep in her husband's arms. It ended up to be the place she took her last breath. Mimi was gone.

"Hello?" Roger took a deep breath.

"Hi Hilda,"

"Roger, it's four in the morning, what is it?" Roger rubbed his forehead, unsure how to word this.

"Hilda, it's about Mimi,"

"What about Mimi?"

"It's just-she's-I don't-" He didn't know how to tell her. So he just sighed and hoped she'd figure it out.

"Oh Roger," He could hear how she was crying and the pain in her voice. "Who else have you told?" She asked.

"Just you so far," He admitted.

"Let me tell Fernando and Rosa, please?"

"Okay," He agreed, that eliminated two people to have to do this with.

"Let me come downtown,"

"Later, it's not save right now." Who knows what could happen right now down in the subway at this time? Especially in Washington Heights where she was, and in the village where they were.

"Alright, goodbye Roger,"

"Bye Hilda." He hung up. One down, at least he got her mother over with. He called Maureen and Joanne next and he got their answering machine, so he just left a message. Then he called Collins.

"Hello?"

"Hey man,"

"Hey, what's up?"

"She's gone." Roger finally blurted out. The first time he'd actually said it. Collins stayed quiet for a minute, at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry man," He finally said. "Do you want me to come get you? I was up before you called." He actually wasn't lying about it. He didn't sleep often.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm gonna call the loft now. I'll be in the waiting in the waiting room," Roger told him.

"Alright, I'll be there in 15 minutes."

"Okay, bye." He hung up the phone, then dialing the loft.

"Hello?" He heard a tired, groggy Mark answer.

"Hey Mark,"

"Oh, hey, what is it?" Mark sat up, suddenly alert.

"It's-it's over." Roger told him. His voice was low as he spoke. Mark wasn't sure how to respond.

"I'm sorry," That was all he could think of.

"I'm coming home soon. Collins is getting me,"

"Okay, well bye."

"Bye." Roger hung up the phone one last time before going to the waiting room. He would call everyone else in the morning. Now he was wondering how he would tell Linda and Nathan.

He was silent the whole way home. When they got to the loft it was six, and Mark, Maureen, and Joanne were all sitting around. They looked up at them when they heard them come in. Joanne was the first one to get up. She hugged him tight and told him "sorry", he was afraid that he was going to be hearing that a lot the next few days. Next was Mark, who did basically the same as Joanne. Than it was Maureen, who threw her arms around him and began to sob uncontrollable. He finally broke down for the first time since it happened with her.

Mimi's mother kept her word on coming and was there by 7:30. Most of the time they all sat there in silence while Roger made more calls to people. At ten, Nathan walked out of his room, not even noticing all the people there.

"Nate," Roger called his son. Nathan looked over at him.

"Dad? You're home?" He was confused; Roger had spent almost every night at the hospital. He then noticed all the people there. "Why is everyone here?" He questioned.

"What do you want to eat, buddy?" Roger asked him, ignoring all of his questions.

"Captain Crunch," He replied, not even caring that Roger was ignoring his questions. Everyone looked at him with pitiful eyes, he had no idea what had happened. Roger made him his breakfast and set him up at the table. Roger sat there next to him and watched him eat his cereal.

At 10:30 Linda came out. She did notice everyone there but it didn't faze her. What did was the fact that Roger was home for once.

"Daddy?" Roger turned around and saw her standing behind him.

"Hey Lin, what do you want to eat?" He asked her, getting up and going to the kitchen area.

"Captain Crunch," She told him, sitting in the chair that he was just sitting in. He made her bowl of cereal and placed it in front of her, sitting down across from them.

"Dad, why is everyone here?" Nathan asked again, finished with his breakfast.

"I need to tell you two something," He told them, still ignoring the question. Linda looked up.

"What is it, daddy?" She asked, shoving a spoon full of cereal into her mouth. Roger sighed not knowing where to even begin.

"Remember how mom would always tell you stories about our friend Angel?" They nodded. "And you remember when she told you that she's in heaven?" They nodded again.

"Mommy said that we can't see her, but she can still see us and that she's watching over us. She said that she's in a better place now because she was very sick but now she can be happy" Linda replied. Roger nodded, this was one of the hardest things he's ever done. He looked over and saw Collins getting choked up.

"Yeah, that's right," He took a deep breath. "Well, you see, mommy went to go be with Angel during the night." The room filled with silence.

"Mommy died?" Linda questioned.

"Well, yes, she did." Another pause, after a moment Linda broke down into a loud sob. Roger rushed to her side while Nathan got up and stomped over into his room, locking the door.

"Nathan!" Roger called after him with Linda wrapped in his arms. It was no use.

"Roger, sweetie, just let him be for a while." Hilda told him. He drew his attention back to Linda, sitting down on the chair and holding her tight. He tried to whisper soothing words to her, but in the end he just ended up breaking down himself, sitting there and crying with her. Everyone else in the room was quiet, not saying a word.

"Nathan, could you please let me in?" Roger begged from the other side of the door. Nathan has had himself locked up in his room for over an hour now.

"No! I want mommy!" Roger sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Come on Nate," Roger continued to beg.

"No! Go away!"

"Nathan, if you don't open this door I will ram it down." He threatened, but that only caused him to hear crying from the other side of the door. He sighed and leaned against the door frame until the door suddenly opened. Roger stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Nathan was curled up in a ball with his blanket wrapped around himself on his bed. Roger sat down at the end of the bed.

"What is it?" Nathan asked, hoping he would leave soon.

"Nate, you can't just keep yourself locked up in here all day,"

"I want mommy." He then broke down into a sob again. Roger watched him helplessly. He pulled him onto his lap.

"I know you do. I do too, and so does everyone else but she's not here anymore. She was very sick, you know that." Roger was trying to convince himself that too actually. He hoped that if he kept saying that that he'll actually believe it. Nathan just continued to cry as Roger held him close.

**July 19****th****, 2002**

The wake was yesterday and today is the funeral. It was a very slow and painful experience. It was only 10:00AM and it felt like they had already gone through a long day. Everyone was at the church now, waiting for the ceremony to start.

"We are gathered here today not because of the death of Mimi Davis, but to celebrate her life," The priest began. "To celebrate her life and what she meant to us. Whether it'd be a friend, daughter, sister, wife, mother, or co-worker, she was a part of all our lives in one way or another. And that's why we're here. Mimi was someone who truly lived her life to the fullest, a very happy, kind, and caring person." Roger wasn't very religious, but the priest was definitely getting through to him about Mimi.

"Why don't we all live like that? There's so much bad in this world, why can't we just all be kind to one another? Take life one day at a time and not dwell on the past, nor totally focusing on the future. This woman truly had a wonderful way of looking at life and living."

After the ceremony and burial were over, everyone headed over to the Life for lunch.

"Remember the first time we all went here together?" Maureen mused, thinking about it. That caused everyone else in the group of friends to think.

"It was almost thirteen years ago now." Mark replied.

"I can't believe it," Collins stated, thinking the last few years over. He looked over at Nathan, Linda, and Lauren (Maureen and Joanne's daughter) along with all the kids from Roger's family, playing at a separate table from theirs. "So much has happened." He added.

"You've got that right," Roger muttered as he took a sip of his beer. The group of friends sat at one end of the table, while Roger's family sat in the middle and Mimi's at the other end.

Roger became very deep in thought, thinking over the past thirteen years and everything that had happened.

**July 19****th****, 2002 11:00PM**

Mark had had himself locked up in his room again for yet another night. He was working on a new project that wasn't for work for once. He finally realized what time it was and decided to eat something.

When he left his room, the loft was dark, except for a glow coming from the other side of the room. He walked over there to find Roger sitting right in front of the TV, which was playing one of the home video's Mark took years ago.

"Finally got all the gifts and balloons inside," Roger informed Mimi, who he had is arms around. She smiled and leaned up, giving him a small kiss.

"Thank you, honey," It was the day Mimi and the twins came home from the hospital.

"Anything for you." You could see her roll her eyes at his cliché response.

"Focus in on new parents Roger and Mimi, who are ignoring the fact that their children are still on the kitchen table." Mark narrated from behind the camera, filming the couple's moment.

"Mark, if you don't get the camera out of my face right now-" Roger began, Mark quickly walked away from them. He focused his attention on the twins.

"Here's Linda and Nathan, it's their first day home, and as we can see, Nate is already making himself at home," He narrated, referring to the fact that Nathan had fallen asleep.

"Roger?" Roger whipped his head around.

"Oh hey," He replied once he saw it was just Mark. Mark walked over and sat down on the floor next to him.

"Miss Linda Davis, care to say anything to the camera?" Mark asked her, zooming in on her face. The infant just stared at him with wonder. He laughed a zoomed out just as Mimi came over and picked her up out of her carrier.

"Hey baby, is Uncle Mark already bothering you with his camera?" She asked the newborn in a sappy voice as she picked her up. Linda just stared at her mother and Mimi laughed, holding the baby close to her.

Mark looked over at Roger, who had a grin spread across his face.

"She was always so happy," Roger spoke up.

"Yeah," Mark agreed, Mimi was honestly one of the happiest people he had ever come across. She took life has it came.

"Even when she got sick." Roger added, his face falling and continuing to watch the video.

"You know I'm right here, right?" Mark commented. Mimi rolled her eyes. "Yes Mark, I have noticed you haven't left yet." Now it was his turn to roll his eyes, Mimi laughed again.

"Alright kids, that's enough," Roger interjected.

"I really miss her." Roger spoke up again. Mark looked over at him again.

"I know you do,"

"It's just hard, Mark." Mark nodded. The only thing he can relate it to was when Sarah left for Washington D.C., but that wasn't even close to how Roger could possibly feeling. Roger and Mimi were the ones for each other. True soul mates, they were with each other until it was her time to go. He had never witness a love as true as theirs.

They sat there in silence, continuing to watch. It went to the next video that was on the tape.

"Nathan, would you please eat something?" Roger begged, sitting in front of his highchair, trying to feed the one year old. Nathan just giggled. "Oh, you think it's funny?" Nathan giggled even more. Roger couldn't help but smile.

"I sure think it's funny." Mark said from behind his camera. Roger and Nathan both turned to see Mimi, Sarah, and Mark, who was filming, watching the scene before them.

"She was always laughing at me because whenever I feed one of them, because they always threw up on me," He told Mark with a small chuckle. Everything Mimi did seemed to make him smile.

"Oh yeah, it's so funny," Mimi laughed as she watched her husband's failed attempt at trying to feed their sons.

"Honey, do you want me to do it?" She offered. He shook his head. "No, I can do it," He turned back to Nathan. "Nate, open up for the train" Nate shook his head, disgusted at the pea baby food. Roger let out a frustrated sigh, while Nathan continued to giggle.

Roger was totally focused on the video. This was all he had left. The only way he could see her in action now.

"Good job, buddy," Roger said to him as he got up to throw the small container out. "See, I told you all I could do it," He turned to face everyone only to see Mimi and Sarah were now watching TV and Mark was still filming.

"Nathan, how do you feel about your feeding?" Mark asked Nathan. Nathan just looked at the camera and started giggling again. Mark smiled and then continued to speak.

"Looks like he had a torturous experience, really awful," Roger rolled his eyes as he picked Nathan up and went over to the couch, sitting down next to Mimi.

Mark kept looking over to see Roger's reaction. He was usually smiling or chuckling or just a straight face. These videos were easily making him go from happy to sad in a second. He knew that Roger would be up all night watching these.

**January 9****th****, 2008**

"Has anyone seen my shoe?" A 15 year old Nathan shouted.

"No," Everyone shouted back. He groaned and continued to look around for it.

"Aunt Maureen, do I look okay?" Maureen turned around to see Linda's big brown eyes staring at her.

"Yes, you look beautiful sweetie," She said, brushing her dirty blonde locks behind her ear.

"I still can't find my shoe!" Nathan exclaimed, running around frantically.

"Just put on another pair of nice shoes!" Roger shouted back to him.

"I don't have another!" Roger sighed, shaking his head.

"Nathan, sweetheart, we're going to be late," Joanne told him. "Just give me a minute! I need my shoe!" He continued to run around the loft. Until finally, ten minutes later, he found it.

"Come on, come on, we're going to be late!" Maureen pushed everyone out of the loft and down the stairs.

"How're you doing, man?" Roger asked Mark, who was pacing back and forth in the small room.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," He said over and over again. Roger and Collins looked over at each other with smirks on their faces.

"I wonder if he's fine," Collins leaned over to Roger, teasing Mark.

"I think he might be, but I'm not too sure." Roger replied back.

"Is this necessary?" Mark asked them, referring to the teasing.

"Is this necessary?" Roger questioned back, referring to the pacing. Mark just rolled his eyes at him.

Everyone rose as "Here Comes the Bride" began to play. Mark looked down the aisle to see Sarah, all dressed up in white coming towards with a huge smile on her face, one on his to match. Sarah had come back in 2005, and the two built their relationship back together and were now getting married.

Sarah took Mark's hands in hers when she arrived. They hand the biggest smiles on their faces as the rabbi began to speak.

"Remember when we were kids and we used to play football in your backyard, and one day, I kicked the ball and it broke your neighbor's window?" Roger said as everyone sat around the table at the reception.

"Yes, I do. You ran like fucking hell all the way back to your house." Mark replied, laughing at the memory.

"You should've seen what all the trouble me and him got into when we were younger," Roger said to Sarah and his kids.

"I could only imagine." Sarah replied. Everyone laughed again.

"Forget when you were kids, you two still do stupid things now." Maureen joined in.

"Yeah dad, was building that indoor mini play-thing a good idea when we were seven?" Linda reminded him.

"I was trying to do something nice!" He tried defended himself.

"All of us and mom were laughing for weeks." Linda continued on, everyone laughing.

"Oh my god, Mimi called me that night telling me all about it. I woke up Lauren from laughing so hard." Maureen added. Roger glared at her.

"It wasn't that funny," He continued to try to defend himself, but was failing horribly.

"It was, actually." He rolled his eyes.

"Mazal tov!" Everyone shouted as they threw rice at Mark and Sarah as they left. They waved goodbye from inside the car and it drove away.

"Well we've got to go," Joanne said as she began to hug everyone goodbye.

"Yeah, us too," Roger added, exchanging hugs with everyone.

"See you all later." Collins said to everyone.

"God dad, you and Uncle Mark still have all these old tapes?" Linda said as she looked through the box, sitting on the couch, in her pajamas.

"Don't mess with them, they're old home movies," Roger told her. She then became very curious.

"Can we watch them?" She asked. He looked over at her.

"I guess," She smiled and picked out one, going over to the TV and putting it in the old VCR that now had a DVD player sitting on top of it. Then she returned back to her spot on the couch next to Nathan, who now had Roger sitting on the other side of them.

"Roger get in here, the ball is going to drop soon!" They heard Mimi's voice fill the room. She was yelling at Roger, who was in the bathroom.

"In a minute!" He shouted back.

"I remember this," Nathan said, thinking back. "This was New Year's Eve 1999 going into 2000."

They saw Roger sit back down next to Mimi, with Linda and Nathan right next to her.

"Nice going dad, could you imagine if you missed it?" Linda commented.

"I'd keep your mouth shut, young lady." She flashed him a smile and focused back at the TV.

"…Five, four, three, two, one!" Once the countdown was over, all the couples had their lips attached to their significant other's. Once that was done, they all exchanged hugs as Dick Clark made a speech about the significance of the new year, the new decade, the new century, and the new millennium.

"I can't believe we were only seven when this happened," Nathan spoke up again.

"I know, right? At least we can remember, and have these as a reminder." Linda responded. Roger smiled as he heard them talking.

"Mommy, who's that lady next to Collins?" Seven year old Nathan asked. Mimi looked down at him. "That's our old friend, Angel. Remember, I've told you stories about her." She explained to him, his green eyes filled with wonder.

"Ooooh, she's pretty. She's in heaven now, right?"

"Isn't she? Yeah, she would've loved to meet you," She continued to tell her son. He just nodded and continued to watch the video. You could see Collins smiling in the background.

"Mom used to love talking about Angel," Linda commented. Nathan nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, she would tell us stories all the time about her."

"Nice pants Mimi. Why don't you wear stuff like that more often?" Maureen commented. Mimi rolled her eyes as there were slight chuckles around the room.

"This image scarred me for life, to be honest." Nathan said, remembering. Roger laughed.

"I could think of other things that you could've seen that would've scarred you worse,"

"Dad!" Linda shouted. Roger laughed again.

"Roger's about to do an inappropriate move for the kiddies." Mark warned. Mimi quickly covered both of the twins' eyes as Roger gave the camera the finger.

"Hey, you deserved it." Roger shot back him. Mark rolled his eyes.

"I bet mom would still cover our eyes now." Nathan commented. All three of them laughed. Nathan and Linda loved to talk about their mother.

"Nice suit Maureen." Mimi now commented.

"Damn right it is!" Maureen replied back. Everyone began to laugh at her enthusiasm.

"You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville out of the girl." Mark added in.

"You know I looked good, Marky." Mark laughed and continued to watch.

"Come on you're going to break it!" An upset Mark shouted.

"Happy New Year Mark!" Maureen teased from behind the camera.

"Look this is not my barmitzh, give it back to me." Maureen continued to run down the street with the camera, when suddenly everything went black and it was over.

"After that she dropped it." Mark told everyone. There were small chuckles around the room for a moment, but then it went silent again.

It seemed that after that, Mark turned off the camera. Then another image appeared on the screen. It was Mimi in a hospital bed with everyone around her. It was her birthday, 2002, her last birthday.

"Happy Birthday!" The group of bohemians that were all cramped in a tiny room exclaimed. Mimi gave everyone a weak, grateful smile from her spot on the bed. She exchanged quiet thank you's as they all hugged her.

"Happy Birthday, Hermana," Fernando said to his sister as he leaned over and hugged her. She hugged back, as tight as her weak body would let her.

"Thank you, Hermano," She replied as he let go of her. He looked down at her pale face. "You look good Hermana." She looked at him like he was losing his mind.

"Don't lie to me, Fernando," He just took her hand and gave her a smile.

"I never would, Hermana." She smiled and squeezed his hand.

"I remember Uncle Fernando flew over just for her," Linda mused quietly.

They watched Roger feed Mimi her cake, not that she couldn't do it herself at the time, but because she wanted him to. They shared loving smiles between them. Linda and Nathan always watched their parents' relationship, noting how close they were and how loving they always were to each other.

"I'm sorry but visiting hours are over, everyone but the immediate family has to leave." A nurse came in and told them. Everyone began to pack up and say goodbye to Mimi, hugging and kissing her while she had a weak smile on her face and thanked everyone, then the screen went black. The three of them just sat there in silence.

"I miss her," Linda broke the silence.

"I do too," Nathan agreed.

"So do I." Roger added. Linda looked over at her father.

"Dad, can you tell us the story about how you and mom met again?" Linda asked him, her big brown eyes were identical to Mimi's.

"Yeah, of course," He said. And he began to tell them of the story of the night from 18 years before. It was the night that changed his life forever. He was sure he would never forget one detail about that night.

**The End**

* * *

><p><em>I am so sorry for being so late on this. I know I said I'd put it up before break was over but I didn't realize how long it was going to take. I also did not realize how long it would be. It's 26 pages on Word and 10,800 words exactly. I made the last day January 9th because I felt weird that now it wouldn't be on December 24th like Mimi and Roger's wedding. I'm sad to see this end, I've been working on this "series" since October and I can't believe it's over. I want to thank you all for reading and reviewing. I kind of want to take a little poll, do you guys think I should write a Mark and OC story next or another Mimi and Roger? Because I have an idea for both but I don't know which one to start. I would just like to say thank you all again. And please review for one final time. <em>


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